MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS/. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that consist mainly of Kurdish paramilitary units have accused Turkey of violating the ceasefire in the border area, Firat News Agency said on Thursday, citing an SDF statement.
"The Turkish army has launched with its Islamist proxies a comprehensive attack on the villages Manajir, Asadiya and Mishrafa," it said, adding that the SDF were repelling the attack.
SANA news agency reported earlier that units of the Syrian armed opposition had attacked two villages near the border city of Ras al-Ayn. The attack had been backed by the Turkish air force.
Apart from that, according to Syria’s El Ihbariye television channel, the Turkish army and units of its supporters took control over a number of settlements near the city of Tell Abyad in northeastern Syria.
On October 9, Turkey launched a military incursion into northern Syria, codenaming it Operation Peace Spring, with the Turkish Armed Forces and the Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army carrying it out. Turkey’s military campaign kicked off with airstrikes on the positions of the previously US-backed Kurdish units. Ankara claimed that its goal is 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 Syrian refugees in Turkey would resettle.
On October 22, Russian and Turkish Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, signed a memorandum on joint actions in northeastern Syria. Under the arrangement the Russian military police and Syrian military are to be moved into the areas bordering the zone of Turkey’s operation in Syria as of noon of October 23. The Kurdish forces will have 150 hours to vacate the 30-kilometer wide strip of land along the Turkish border. After that Russian and Turkish forces will begin joint patrols.