Syrian army forces on Monday approached the Turkish border as Turkish troops and pro-Syrian factions continued a military operation against Kurdish guerrillas, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.
An AFP correspondent said troops were deployed on the outskirts of Tal Tamr, south of the border town of Ras Al Ain, where the fighting was taking place, while the Syrian official SANA news agency reported that “units of the Syrian Arab Army enter the town of Tal Tamr” in the northwestern countryside of Hasaka.
Sources close to the Syrian government forces told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the army has taken control of Tabqa military airport and Tabqa oil fields and continues to advance towards the town of Ain Issa in the northern Raqqa countryside.
The sources pointed out that “the army entered the military airport Tabqa (45 km west of Tabqa) and oil fields Habari south of the airport at dawn today, as a military convoy crossed the Euphrates River in the city of Tabqa towards the town of Issa (65 km north of the city of Raqqa).
Syrian government forces lost Tabqa military airport after fierce battles with ISIS militants at the end of August 2014, and ISIS killed hundreds of elements of the airport after taking control.
The SDF then took control of the airport at the end of March 2017.
