Turkey has been lightly shelling towns in northern Syria, but its verbal war remains in bigger proportions.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday that his country is determined to clear the last “terror nests” in Syria.
Addressing the diplomats who attended the 13th Ambassadors Conference in the Turkish capital Ankara, Erdoğan said: “Hopefully, we will unite the rings of this security belt soon by clearing the last areas where the terrorist organization is nesting in Syria,” Daily Sabah reported.
“We will continue our fight against terrorism. Our decision to establish a 30-kilometre-deep secure line along our southern border remains,” he underlined.
Turkish forces evacuated bases
On the ground, Turkish forces evacuated two bases in the western countryside of Tel Abyad, in the northern countryside of Raqqa, northern Syria, sources told Asharq al-Awsat.
The forces withdrew from their military bases in the villages of Hareqli and Tannuz.
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The withdrawal, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, was coordinated with Russian forces in the area.
The withdrawal will likely be followed by Russian and regime advances in Tal Abyad in an unspoken agreement between Moscow and Ankara.
Meanwhile, in a sign that Ankara may not have completely abandoned its plans to launch a cross-border military operation against Kurdish forces, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan affirmed his country’s determination to connect safe zones in northern Syria soon.
Turkish Forces Target Syria’s Manbij
Syrian Kurds are still very concerned.
Manbij Military Council (MMC), a military formation affiliated with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said on Tuesday that villages on contact lines with Turkish forces, northwestern the city of Manbij, north of Aleppo Governorate, were shelled with about 81 shells during the past ten days.
This came in a statement the MMC posted on its official Facebook account.
The villages on contact lines between MMC forces and the Turkish forces along with their armed opposition factions were shelled with 81 shells during the past ten days, according to statistics carried out by the MMC.
According to North Press, Four people lost their lives on Tuesday in a Turkish shelling by two mortar shells targeted a location in the city of Qamishli, northeast Syria.
A military source told North Press that the two mortar shells landed in the village of Segirka just behind COVID-19 hospital in northern Qamishli.
The initial report noted the death of four people and the injury of three others, in addition to the destruction that affected the place.
This comes within Turkish violent escalation on most northeast Syria villages that started on Monday.
Turkish Drone Targets House
Meanwhile, the Kurdish news agency reported that a Turkish drone targeted on Tuesday a house in the town of Amuda, west of the city of Qamishli in northwestern Syria.
An eye witness told North Press that the Turkish drone targeted the house of Abdulgani Haj Hamdi in the village of Kharzah, north of Amuda.
This coincided with the flight of two Russian helicopters over the area at a low altitude, moving towards the front lines between Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish forces north of Hasakah Governorate.
The Turkish forces shelled on Monday a military post of the Syrian government forces in Amuda with mortars.
