Syrian government forces and their allies scored an important victory by recapturing areas in southwestern Aleppo which rebels had seized last month, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
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“From Azaz to Jarabulus, our 91-kilometre border has been completely secured”.
ISIS has lost control of its last territories on the border with Turkey, monitoring groups say, in a major blow to the group’s ability to receive foreign fighters from the rest of the world.
In northern Syria, Turkey and its allies opened a new line of attack.
The Islamic State had occupied the Turkish border area even before it declared its self-styled caliphate in June 2014, and it used the Turkish border to bring in fighters from around the world.
Ankara considers the YPG a “terrorist” group and has been alarmed by its expansion along the border, fearing the creation of a contiguous, semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria.
The ultimate goal of Ankara is now believed to curb the advances of the SDF in northern Syria, which had aimed to control a territory that would connect the Kurdish cantons of Afrin and Kobani through Jarablus and Azaz along the Turkish border.
While the government in Damascus is condemning the Turkish incursion as a violation of Syrian sovereignty, on Sunday the Turkish Prime Minister said that Syrian territorial integrity is “essential” for Turkey, as Binali Yildirim vowed to continue military operation south of the border. Turkey hosts an estimated 3 million Syrian refugees, the highest number in the world.
Yildirim on Sunday defended his country’s intervention in Syria, pointing to their long shared border.
ISIS appeared to have ceded control of its last two villages along the Turkish border Sunday, a spokesman for SOHR told the Independent.
In the view of Abdullah Agar, a security analyst and writer, Turkey is now engaged in a struggle for existence against terror groups as well as the powers behind them. Those Syrian rebels, backed by some 30 Turkish tanks and coalition air support, quickly liberated that border town from Islamic State.
IS and the Observatory said the target was a checkpoint at Tartus’ southern entrance.
However, United States leaders are using this year’s gathering as an opportunity to talk about an end to the Syrian Civil War.
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The deal would focus on delivery of humanitarian supplies to Aleppo, where recent advances by both sides have cut supplies, power and water to almost 2 million people in government- and rebel-held areas. SANA said they discussed Syria’s war and ways of fighting terrorism.
