Mon 14 October 2019:
Troops loyal to regime of Bashar Assad entered the town of Tal Tamr in northeastern Syria, state media reported Monday.
The move, announced on Sunday, represents a major shift in alliance for Syria’s Kurds and came hours after the United States said it was withdrawing its troops from the area to avoid getting caught in the middle of the fast-escalating conflict.
The Kurdish-led administration in a statement on Facebook said it had brokered the agreement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government to counter Turkey’s ongoing push, which has drawn widespread condemnation.
“In order to prevent and confront this aggression, an agreement has been reached with the Syrian government … so that the Syrian army can deploy along the Syrian-Turkish border to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),” the statement said.
Tal Tamr sits on a strategically important highway, the M4, that runs east to west. Turkish forces had seized the highway Sunday.
Assad forces have reportedly set up a military checkpoint on the M4.
The town is 35 km (20 miles) southeast of Turkish border town of Ceylanpınar, which is used by the Turkish military and its allies to cross into Syria.
It would also allow for the “liberation” of other Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army such as Afrin, the statement said. The Turkish army and its Syrian rebel allies drove Kurdish forces from Afrin in 2018.
Earlier on Sunday, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported Damascus, which is backed militarily by Russia and Iran, was sending troops to the country’s north to “confront the Turkish aggression”. It did not give further details.
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