Syrian Army Increases Deployment in Aleppo after Turkey’s Threats in Eastern Euphrates

Field sources reported on Tuesday that a large military convoy was sent by the Syrian army to Menaq airbase in Northern Aleppo, 11km away from Aleppo city.

They added that the convoy consisted of a large number of Syrian army forces and several tanks and military and armored vehicles, noting that the army has also dispatched military grids to Deir Jamal and Tal Rafat in the West and Tadaf in Northern Aleppo close to the positions of the Ankara-backed militants.

The sources said that the Syrian Army aims to strengthen its fronts in response to the Turkish army’s mobilization of militants in the Euphrates region.

They added that the army’s decision to send more forces and military equipment to Northern Aleppo was made after Turkey recently threatened that it was preparing to launch an assault on the Kurds in Eastern Euphrates.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Sunday that the Turkish troops and their allied militants targeted the strongholds of the Kurdish militias in Manbij region in Northeastern Aleppo in violation of an earlier agreement between Ankara and Washington.

SOHR reported that the Ankara-backed forces known as the Euphrates Shield opened heavy machinegun fire at the village of al-Hamran Northwest of the town of Manbij.

It further said that the Ankara forces targeted the positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces and farms in the region.

In the meantime, the US-led coalition fighter jets conducted round the clock flights over Manbij.

The attacks were carried out regardless of an agreement between the US and Turkish forces to carry out joint patrols along a buffer zone separating the Euphrates Shield forces from the Manbij Military Council forces.

SOHR said earlier this month that Turkish intelligence service transferred over 700 Ankara-backed militants and their military hardware from Afrin to the Eastern bank of the Euphrates River via the Turkish territory to use them in a massive operation against the Kurds.