Syrian army and SDF fighters launch joint military patrols on Tuesday
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported strengthening field coordination between the Syrian army and the Syria Democratic Forces under the Turkish operation, adding that the two sides will launch joint military patrols.
The London-based Observatory said on Monday that the Syrian army and SDF fighters would conduct joint patrols along the border of the city of Qamishli and the Derbasiyah area in the southeastern province of Hasakah.
The Observatory also quoted “reliable sources” that the commander of the Hasakah Military Council of the “SDF” on Sunday, met with a brigadier of the Syrian army inside the security box in Qamishli to discuss “the latest developments in the region and how to coordinate” between the two parties.
Turkey, on October 9, amid widespread opposition and criticism from the Syrian authorities and the governments of many Arab and Western countries, launched a military operation called the “spring of peace” northeast of Syria “to clear these territories of terrorists”, referring to the Kurdish “YPG”, which it considers Ankara is an arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and is active within the Washington-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) as part of the anti-ISIS campaign.
The Syrian authorities considered these movements as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and sent troops to control a number of large cities and towns there, after reaching understandings on this matter with the “Syria Democratic Forces” mediated by the Russian side, amid increasing fears of clashes between the Turkish and Syrian armies in light of the differences. Between Damascus and Ankara.
On October 17, Turkey and the United States, an ally of Kurdish militants fighting IS, reached an agreement on a ceasefire in northeastern Syria that would allow Kurdish units to withdraw from an area about 30 kilometers south within 120 hours.
The deployment of the Syrian army will be among the most important issues discussed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during their upcoming meeting in Sochi on Tuesday, while Ankara warned that it would consider the actions of Syrian government forces to declare war once it was found to have been taken to protect Kurdish militants.
