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Turkish military shell village in northern Syria — TV

On Wednesday, Syrian media reported clashes between Syrian government forces on the one side and Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters on the other side

MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. The Turkish military have shelled the Tall Ward village southeast of the Syrian city of Ras al-Ayn, the Alikhbaria TV channel reported on Thursday.

According to the TV channel, the attack killed a female civilian and left another four wounded.

On Wednesday, Syrian media reported clashes in that area between Syrian government forces on the one side and Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters on the other side.

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. Ankara claimed that its goal was to clear the border area of what it calls ‘terrorists’ 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, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said that in accordance with an agreement with the Kurds, Damascus had sent troops to northern Syria to confront the Turkish army. Syrian government forces seized a number of towns and settlements in the Kurdish-populated areas in the next few days, including Tabqah, Manbij, Raqqa and Kobani. On October 17, Syrian troops reached the border with Turkey.

On October 22, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey signed a memorandum on joint actions to resolve the situation in northeastern Syria. According to the document, Russian military police units and Syrian troops were deployed to areas adjacent to the zone of Turkey’s Operation Peace Spring. Kurdish units were given 150 hours to pull out of the 30-km zone along the Syria-Turkey border, while Russian military police and Turkish troops are expected to launch joint patrols.