Rebels supported by Turkey advance attack on an important enclave in northern Syria

The rebel Syrian National Army (SNA), supported by Turkey, has announced an offensive against the town of Ain Issa, which is controlled by the Kurdish forces and is very close to the security zone agreed upon a year ago between Ankara and Moscow in the north-east of Syria, although it is outside the zone. 

"The Operations Room of the First Corps, Ain Issa's axis, on 20 December 2020: the First Corps forces will advance to liberate the villages of Ain Issa in the next hours", a fighter has proclaimed in a video broadcast in the last hours by channels related to the ENS on the social network Telegram.

The SNA, contrary to the government of the Syrian president Bashar al-Asad (which is supported by Russia), made public its intention to launch an offensive against the Democratic Forces of Syria (DSF), a group that includes the Kurds, in the town of Ain Issa, located on the important M4 road that connects the northeast of Syria with the western part of the war-torn Middle East country.    

Turkey entered Syria precisely through the Turkish-Syrian border under the pretext of harassing the Kurds, whom it accuses of carrying out attacks in the south of the Ottoman territory. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government reached an agreement with Donald Trump's US executive, who left the Syrian country leaving behind the members of the People's Protection Units (YPG), which were integrated in the DSF and had been a key piece in Daesh's defeat more than a year ago, when the last stronghold of Baghouz fell. 

At the end of 2019, Turkey began this military incursion into Syria to take control of a strip of the neighbouring country and expel the Kurdish-Syrian militias from its border area, evicting them from Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn, two cities located north and east of Ain Issa, respectively. He also claimed that he wanted to settle there a large number of Syrian refugees who were attempting to settle in the Eurasian country. 

Weeks later, Ankara and Moscow (Al-Asad's ally) agreed in the Russian city of Sochi to set up "a security zone" in this 30-kilometre strip in northeast Syria, parallel to the Turkish border, of which Ain Issa was not part, but which is only a few kilometres away.

Turkey thus got in the way of the Bashar al-Asad regime and its Russian partner, who are attempting to topple the last rebel stronghold in the province of Idlib, where they claim to harbour elements linked to Jihadist terrorism. Precisely, Turkey is singled out by many analysts for using on the ground paid mercenaries linked to groups that were once linked to Jihadist entities such as Daesh or al-Qaeda, whom it has even sent to the civil war in Libya.  

"What is taking place in the vicinity of Ain Issa are specific actions carried out for purposes that serve our future military objectives", the spokesman for the Syrian National Army, Youssef Hammoud, told the Efe agency, defending that they will not cease to fight against "all terrorist and separatist forces".

Hammoud specified that his forces have already advanced in the villages of Al-Jahbel and Al-Musharafa, as well as in the area of Al-Nakhil, on the important M4 road.

Meanwhile, Syrian rebel fighters opposed to Al-Asad and supported by the Turkish army have recently carried out artillery attacks in the town of Ain Issa and several nearby villages, according to local media reports.    

Ain Issa is currently controlled by the Kurdish-led SDF, an important partner of the USA in the fight against Daesh, as it has been pointed out. "In the past two weeks, these attacks on Ain Issa have increased significantly," said Hosheng Hesen, a reporter with the Syrian-based Northern Press Agency.   

With such a Turkish military build-up near the Syrian border, observers indicate that the Turkish forces could start a new large-scale operation to capture Ain Issa.

"At this point, anything is possible," said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).  The SOHR itself reported that the area has witnessed "almost daily bombings" in recent days. It should be noted that in October, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, spoke on several occasions about the possibility of a new Turkish offensive in the northeast of Syria.