Turkish media reveals the date of the start of the ground operation in northern Syria

Turkish media revealed on Saturday, that the ground operation of the Turkish forces in Syria will begin as soon as possible.

Turkish close to government Yeni Safak newspaper, quoting a report by the Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, in a closed meeting of the ruling party, stated that the ground operation will be carried out as soon as possible.

Yeni Safak newspaper pointed out that it wasn’t possible to obtain the required support from both Russia and the United States regarding the “claw-sword” air operation in northern Syria, but despite this, the operation took place and was successful.

In the same context, the newspaper’s report criticized the position of the United States, describing it as hypocritical.

According to what was reported by Yeni Safak newspaper, the United States criticized the air operation in Syria, and warned Turkey that “we shouldn’t enter there, as the area is under its (US) control”.

On November 20, Turkey launched an air operation against the Kurdish Workers Party in northern Syria, during which the Turkish Air Force carried out strikes on multiple areas.

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the operation as successful and didn’t rule out that it would be followed by a ground operation.

For its part, Syrian sources reported that on Saturday, Turkish forces targeted a number of villages in the countryside of Hasakah and Raqqa with artillery and mortar shells.

The Syrian official News Agency (SANA) quoted the sources as saying, “A number of artillery and mortar shells, originating from the Turkish occupation and its mercenaries, targeted this morning (Saturday) the villages of Al Zuhairiya and Kharab Rishk in Al Malikiyah countryside, north of the city of Al Hasakah, and one of the shells targeted the vicinity of the Semalka crossing, which caused material damage in homes and properties”.

SANA added, “The Turkish occupation forces and its terrorist mercenaries targeted, with a number of shells, the village of Al Hoshan in the countryside of Tal Abyad, north of Raqqa, in addition to targeting the vicinity of the M4 international road, which caused material damage”.

According to the agency, “the past few days witnessed an intensification of the attacks of the Turkish occupation forces and its mercenaries on the countryside of Aleppo, Raqqa and Hasakah, which caused the death and injury of a number of civilians, in addition to the destruction of homes and vital facilities, the last of which was the outage of the Suwaydiya electricity generation facility as a result of the targeting of the Suwaydiya gas plant in the countryside of the city”, Al Malikiyah by the Turkish occupation aviation.

On Friday, Türkiye announced the neutralization of more than 300 Kurdish militants in an attack on northern Syria and northern Iraq.

On Saturday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said, “Operation Claw – Sword continues with punitive strikes, with air and ground support vehicles… So far, 326 terrorists have been neutralized.”

The operation targets the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

This came a week after a bomb attack in Istanbul killed six people and injured more than 80 others.

Ankara blames the YPG and the PKK for the attack, while both groups deny the Turkish accusation.