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The Turkish-backed military factions announced Thursday night that they had reached Ain Issa gate, north of Raqqa, after they had taken control of two villages there after violent clashes between them and the Syrian Democratic Forces (Qasd).
The Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction published a video clip announcing the control of the villages of Al-Jahbel and Al-Musharafa, adjacent to the town of Ain Issa, after violent clashes between the Ahrar Al-Sharqiya faction and “Qasd” on the axis of Ain Issa town, during which heavy weapons were used.
The Russian “Sputnik” agency quoted field sources as saying that the Turkish-backed factions have brought large military reinforcements to the villages of “Abu Kharza”, “Sallum” and “Rummana” opposite the villages of “Hoshan” and “Khaldiya”, adjacent to the (Aleppo-Raqqa-Hasakah) road. Known as (M4) east of Ain Issa, and it includes tanks, heavy artillery, vehicles and four-wheel drive cars equipped with heavy machine guns.
The factions’ attack on the villages of Ain Issa was preceded, days before, a meeting between Russia and a number of SDF leaders in Ain Issa on December 5, during which the Russian side, according to a special source for “Syria Files”, used a “threatening rather than negotiating” tone, Stressing that the factions will invade the town at any moment as soon as the Russian forces leave it, if the “SDF” refuses to hand it over to the Syrian army.
And he added, “It was clear through Russia’s demands that these attacks are taking place at the behest of Russia, because the latter, instead of talking about its obligations as a guarantor of the Astana Agreement and stopping the violations and attacks, immediately demanded that the SDF evacuate Ain Issa and hand it over to the Syrian government in full.”
The factions’ attack on the town also coincides with Turkish military withdrawals from the observation points located in the areas under the control of the Syrian army in the countryside of Aleppo, Idlib and Hama, amid news of a Russian-Turkish agreement to withdraw these points, in exchange for a Russian agreement to Turkey’s entry into the depth of the Raqqa governorate, To cut off the road in front of the “SDF” who connected the areas under its control in the eastern countryside of Aleppo with the Al-Jazeera region to the east.
The SDF’s adherence to Ain Issa and its refusal to hand it over to the Russian sides and the Syrian army comes after the assurances it had previously obtained from the US-led international coalition that there is no current plan to enter the Turkish-backed factions into Ain Issa town, and in the event of their attack on the town, The international coalition forces will support the “Qasd” in preventing the factions from taking control of it, under the pretext that the town is 40 km away from the Turkish border, and the Turkish-Russian agreement stipulates that any presence of “Qasd” must be prevented at a depth of less than 32 km from its borders.
All this comes at a time when the Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, told the American Foreign Policy magazine that the “Qasd” is the decision-maker in the region, describing the Russian forces as “guests,” and that they – meaning “Qasd” – accompany the Russian patrols that roam In the northeast of the country, adding that the presence of these forces was due to the American withdrawal, which resulted in the Turkish entry into areas in northern and eastern Syria, according to his description.
