ANKARA: Following days of reconnaissance activities in Idlib, some 100 Turkish soldiers — including commandoes — set foot in the Syrian province Thursday night with armored vehicles, tanks and artillery as part of Ankara’s attempts to establish a “de-escalation zone” there.
As a first step, the Turkish military will begin establishing observation posts to implement the de-escalation zone, as per the Astana agreement brokered on Sept. 16 between Turkey, Russia and Iran.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday: “Turkey shares a border with Idlib, so we should take our own measures. It is us who are under constant abuse and threat.” Idlib is dominated by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), which rejects the Astana process.
The Turkish military said its mission is to establish, monitor and maintain a cease-fire, deliver humanitarian aid to civilians and help the displaced return home.
The military is set to establish 14 observation posts in Idlib, and will provide security for NGOs to deliver humanitarian aid.
During this open-ended operation, Turkish troops are not expected to launch a ground offensive. They will only support the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in case the Astana deal is violated.
Turkey, Iran and Russia will send 500 observers each to Idlib to monitor the de-escalation agreement.
Turkey’s previous Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria targeted Daesh, but this time the target is HTS.
Another aim is to stop the Syrian-Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), from gaining access to the Mediterranean and expanding their sphere of influence.
Murat Yesiltas, a Middle East expert at the Ankara-based think tank SETA, said the deployment phase has not experienced any logistical or military problems so far, and the mission seems to be going smoothly.
“The presence and military dominance of HTS in Idlib is the most likely local parameter to challenge the mission,” he told Arab News.
“Especially after the splinter group Ansar Al-Furqan’s announcement that it will fight any ‘invader force,’ there’s considerable risk of a fight in the medium term.”
Yesiltas said since the emergence of a Daesh pocket in southeast Idlib in recent days, there is a risk of the group sabotaging the de-escalation zone and targeting Turkish troops via cells.
Nursin Atesoglu Guney, dean of the faculty of economics, administrative and social sciences at Bahcesehir Cyprus University, told Arab News: “Turkey entered Idlib not as a warring party but as a peacekeeping actor. The aim is to consolidate our presence there and sit at the negotiation table along with opposition groups at the political resolution stage.”
Yesiltas agrees: “Turkey’s exit strategy consists of maintaining the de-escalation zone and thus stability in Idlib first. The elimination of the YPG threat from Afrin via military force should follow if necessary. The last phase would be negotiations with the Assad regime for an ultimate solution to the Syrian conflict.”
Guney said: “The stance of the US, which is active east of the Euphrates River via the YPG, will determine activity on the ground. Turkey’s experience acquired during Euphrates Shield will help it coordinate its military efforts with local realities and diplomatic contacts.”
What challenges for Turkish forces in Idlib?
What challenges for Turkish forces in Idlib?
Macron says West must be cautious over new Syria rulers
“We must regard the regime change in Syria without naivety,” Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors after Islamist-led forces toppled Assad last month, adding France would not abandon “freedom fighters, like the Kurds” who are fighting extremist groups in Syria.
UN: Over 30 million in need of aid in war-torn Sudan
- Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced
- Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: More than 30 million people, over half of them children, are in need of aid in Sudan after twenty months of war, the United Nations said on Monday.
The UN has launched a $4.2 billion call for funds, targeting 20.9 million people across Sudan from a total of 30.4 million people it said are in need in what it called “an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Sudan has been torn apart and pushed to the brink of famine by the war that erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than eight million internally displaced, which, in addition to 2.7 million displaced before the war, has made Sudan the world’s largest internal displacement crisis.
A further 3.3 million people have fled across Sudan’s borders to escape the war, which means over a quarter of the country’s pre-war population, estimated at around 50 million, are now uprooted.
Famine has already been declared in five areas in Sudan and is expected to take hold of five more areas by May, with 8.1 million people currently on the brink of mass starvation.
Sudan’s army-aligned government has denied there is famine, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.
For much of the conflict, the UN has struggled to raise even a quarter of the funds it has targeted for its humanitarian response in the impoverished northeast African country.
Sudan has often been called the world’s “forgotten” war, overshadowed by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine despite the scale of the horrors inflicted upon civilians.
Jordanian FM discusses rebuilding Syria in Turkiye talks
DUBAI: The Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi highlighted on Tuesday the need to help Syria regain its security, stability, and sovereignty during discussions in Turkiye.
Talks also focused on providing support to the Syrian people and addressing the challenge of rebuilding the war-torn country.
He underscored Jordan's firm stance against any aggression on Syria’s sovereignty, rejecting Israeli attacks on Syrian territory.
The minister also expressed solidarity with Turkey, supporting its rights in confronting the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), emphasizing the importance of regional cooperation to ensure peace and stability.
Israel military says three projectiles fired from north Gaza
JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said it identified three projectiles fired from the northern Gaza Strip that crossed into Israel on Monday, the latest in a series of launches from the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“One projectile was intercepted by the IAF (air force), one fell in Sderot and another projectile fell in an open area. No injuries were reported,” the military said in a statement.
Sudan army air strike kills 10 in southern Khartoum: rescuers
- Strike targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt ‘for the third time in less than a month’
- War between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary forces has killed tens of thousands of people
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Ten Sudanese civilians were killed and over 30 wounded in an army air strike on southern Khartoum, volunteer rescue workers said.
The strike on Sunday targeted a market area of the capital’s Southern Belt “for the third time in less than a month,” said the local Emergency Response Room (ERR), part of a network of volunteers across the country coordinating frontline aid.
The group said those killed burned to death. The wounded, suffering from burns, were taken to the local Bashair Hospital, with five of them in a critical condition.
Since April 2023, the war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands of people.
In the capital alone, the violence killed 26,000 people between April 2023 and June 2024, according to a report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Khartoum has experienced some of the war’s worst violence, with entire neighborhoods emptied out and taken over by fighters.
The military, which maintains a monopoly on the skies with its jets, has not managed to wrest back control of the capital from the paramilitary.
Of the 11.5 million people currently displaced within Sudan, nearly a third have fled from the capital, according to United Nations figures.
Both the RSF and the army have been repeatedly accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
