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Turkish troops shelling Syrian settlements in Hasakah and Raqqa provinces - agency

According to the SANA news agency, there have been no reports of injuries so far, however, several residential buildings in the area have been damaged

BEIRUT, December 28. /TASS/. Turkish troops have shelled several settlements located to the east of the border town of Ras al-Ayn in the Syrian province of Hasakah, local residents told the SANA news agency. There have been no reports of injuries so far, however, several residential buildings in the area have been damaged.

According to the agency, the Turkish troops and the Ankara-supported Syrian armed opposition formations have shelled the city of Tell Tamer located 40 km away from Hasakah’s administrative center. SANA informs that local residents are forced to leave their homes and relocate to safer areas.

Turkish forces and militants opened fire on the outskirts of the town of Ayn Issa, where Kurdish units from the Syrian Democratic Forces coalition are active. Since early December, clashes between the sides have been reported in the area. The Kurdish forces repelled several attacks of the opposition formations supported by the Turkish army and drones. As a result of the clashes, units of the Syrian Democratic Forces killed 24 opposition militants, and the Kurds have lost five militants.

On December 27, Vyacheslav Sytnik, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Parties in Syria, informed that military police units had been sent to Syria’s Ayn Issa to stabilize the situation. According to Sytnik, earlier, during the talks with the Turkish side, agreements were reached to place joint Russian-Syrian observation posts due to the unstable situation in the area. The Russian military official called on commanders of illegal armed formations to "abandon provocations and step on the path of peaceful regulation of the situation in the areas under their control.".

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