MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Syria’s government forces are strengthening their positions along the Turkish border in the country’s north, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported on Monday.
According to the agency, Syrian troops are expanding their presence in the 90-km area between the cities of Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli.
On October 9, Turkey launched a military incursion into northern Syria, codenaming it Operation Peace Spring, which involved the Turkish Armed Forces and the Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army. The Erdogan government claimed that its goal was to clear the border area of what it calls ‘terrorists’ (Turkey’s broad label of the Kurdish forces) and establish a 30 km-long buffer zone in Syria’s north, where over 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey would resettle.
On October 13, SANA said that Damascus had sent troops to northern Syria to confront the Turkish army, in accordance with an agreement reached with the Kurds. In the next few days, Syrian forces took control of a number of cities and settlements located in the Kurd-populated areas, including Tabqah, Raqqa and Kobane. On October 17, Syrian troops reached the border with Turkey.