Military escalation in Syria's Hasakah, Aleppo countrysides
The Turkish military shells SDF sites in northern Syria, and Russian aircraft bombs Syrian National Army sites amid tensions in the region.
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Damaged civilian homes in northern Syria
The town of Ain Issa in the Al-Raqqa countryside in Syria is seeing an increase in Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) armed groups patrols amid high tensions in Al-Hasakah as the Turkish occupation is constantly bombing the northern Syrian region.
The Opposition's Syrian Observatory said Sunday, "The Syrian Democratic Forces completely encircled the Russian forces inside Ain Issa district in the northern Al-Rakka countryside following a dispute between the two, the causes of which are yet to be known."
"The Russian forces demanded that SDF evacuate the M4 international highway section in the city of Ain Issa and hand it over to the Syrian army in full," sources told Al Mayadeen. "The SDF leadership rejected the Russian request, leading to tensions in the area."
Russian warplanes bombed sites for the Syrian National Army, a Turkish-backed militia, on Saturday night in the southeast of Ras al-Ayn without any information on the losses.
The Turkish military and the armed factions it backs shelled SDF-controlled areas, inflicting heavy damage on the civilian homes in the region.
The shelling killed a Syrian soldier and injured 10 others. The aggression spread to nearby cities and reached Afrin, with 30 shells landing in the region.
The latest international meeting aimed at mitigating the tensions in the region, the Astana Summit, saw the presidents of Russia, Iran, and Turkey agreeing to an undeclared truce in northern Syria, with Ankara pledging to delay launching a new military operation in the region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Iranian capital to participate in the talks in Tehran to discuss ways of a Syrian settlement, in addition to several common agendas.
Reports indicate that the truce was based on Moscow pledging to persuade the SDF to leave the M4 international highway and hand it over to the Syrian army in exchange for Turkey evacuating Hay'at Tahrir Al-Sham and other factions in backs to the northern section of the highway in preparation for opening it.
These developments come after Turkey, under the pretext of fighting terrorists in Syria, said it would launch an offensive in the country's north. "The Turkish army intends to carry out anti-terror military operations at the Turkish state borders," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in late May. "The decision on these operations will be taken soon," he added.
He said the Turkish army intended to carry out military operations to combat terrorism at the Turkish state borders, explaining that Ankara "will start taking new steps to complete the safe zone 30 km north of Syria."
