ANKARA, May 26. /TASS/. Terrorist sites in the vicinity of Tal Rifat and Manbij will be primarily targeted by the Turkish army during a new operation planned in northern Syria, according to the Sabah newspaper.
The scale of the operation and its goals will be discussed at a meeting of Turkey’s National Security Council chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday. The starting time of the operation will be determined during this meeting as well. The newspaper does not rule out that it may begin immediately following the meeting.
According to Sabah, preparations for the fifth operation of the Turkish army in northern Syria since 2016 have been completed, ground reconnaissance has been conducted and pinpointed targets for air and artillery strikes have been determined, mainly in the areas from where the US withdrew its units. It is planned to use F-16 fighter jets from Turkey’s Air Force, drones, special forces and ground artillery.
According to earlier reports, the operation was planned to be conducted in four regions: Tal Rifat, Ayn al-Arab, Ayn Issa and Manbij. They are controlled by Syria’s so-called National Defense Forces (NDF) which Turkey deems to be an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). According to Turkish intelligence, the majority of militants are concentrated in Manbij. The National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces insists that the new operation by the Turkish army will help mop up the terrorists from the region and ensure the return of about 2.5 mln Syrian refugees from Turkey.
According to the Turkiye newspaper, the operation will involve about 50,000 people, including local forces controlled by Ankara.
Following the operation, Turkey intends to return the remains of Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. His remains were evacuated to Turkey in 2015, and the mausoleum was blown up.
The crypt was located on a small peninsula on the Euphrates River in Aleppo province 37 kilometers away from the Syrian-Turkish border.
On May 23, Erdogan announced the possibility of conducting a new trans-border operation on the adjacent territory in order to finalize the creation of a 30-kilometer security zone near the southern border. As a result of Turkey’s military operations conducted in northern Syria earlier, a security zone between the towns of Azaz and Jarabulus north of Aleppo was created, Afrin was occupied and border regions east of the Euphrates River were taken under control.