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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Turkey backed rebel units close on Al-Bab |
| 2016-11-14 |
| Erbil – The Turkey-backed Syrian rebels of the Euphrates Shield Brigades on Sunday got much closer to taking the town of al-Bab. Only 2km separates the rebels from the ISIS-hedl town. “Turkey-backed [rebel] forces is only 2km away from liberating al-Bab. Land mines and IEDs planted around al-Bab by Daesh [ISIS] terrorists were defused,” leadership of the Euphrates Shield operation said on Sunday. Ali Özkök, a Turkish Middle East Analyst, told ARA News that the Turkey-backed rebels could take al-Bab soon.“The Turkish air force has been striking ISIS positions in al-Bab for weeks, in support of the allied ground troops. Within two weeks al-Bab should fall.” “1,500 rebels plus special forces, 40 tanks and 15+ apc’s are involved in a-Bab operation,” Özkök said. However, the operation could lead to more tensions between the Kurds and Turkish-backed rebels. Özkök said that after the operation the Turkey-backed rebels could either attack the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), ISIS-held Tabqa to go towards Raqqa, or Til Rifaat to cut of the Kurds from al-Bab. “One thing is definite, offensive will not stop in al-Bab or Manbij. [The Euphrates Shield Brigades] started huge training programs. Erdogan speaks about a safe zone that reaches 5,000 km²,” he told ARA News. According to Michael Stephens, director of the Royal United Services Institute–Qatar, the fight for al-Bab could endanger the recently launched Raqqa operation by the SDF forces. “Northern Aleppo has been a very serious area of contention where it’s not clear what agreements have been made or what arrangements. There doesn’t appear to be a mechanism to stopping the Kurds or Turks to fight over it,” Stephens told ARA News. “While al-Bab opens up options for Turkey, it shuts off options for the Kurds and puts Raqqa operation in jeopardy until there is a firmer framework for understanding how this operation is going to work. The fight for al-Bab by Turkey-backed rebels poses risk to the whole Raqqa operation that may fall apart,” he concluded. In the meantime, the SDF spokesman Sharvan Darwish accused the Turkey-backed rebels of ethnically cleansing Kurdish and Arab villages around al-Bab, “which is a clear sign of that the Turkish operation is ultimately aimed at preventing Syrian Kurds from uniting their canton administrations in Kobane and Afrin.” The Turkey-backed rebels taking al-Bab could also lead to more tensions between the Syrian government and Turkey. The Syrian government fears the Turkey-backed rebels could open up a new front in Aleppo city to save besieged rebels in eastern Aleppo from joint Syrian-Russian operations. |
| Posted by:badanov |