The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) stands face-to-face with the Turkish Armed Forces along a frontline area of some 15 kilometers after Islamic State forces carried out a large-scale tactical withdrawal from the Al-Bab front on Thursday.

Although being firmly opposed to one another since the Syrian rebellion began in 2011, these two national armies have for the most part shied away from direct military confrontation.

Next up, the Turkish Army and Syrian rebel forces aligned with Ankara must decide whether to initiate potentially costly clashes with the SAA, retake areas lost to Kurdish forces or possibly dash towards Raqqa, an ISIS-held city over 160 kilometers away.

Advertisement

In the past, the SAA and Turkish Army have exchanged artillery fire in Latakia province and clashed sporadically in northeastern Aleppo. Nevertheless, Turkey continues to supply Syrian Islamist rebels generously with armaments and military equipment.

Due to ISIS’ retreat earlier in the day, the Turkish Army, Ahrar al-Sham, Faylaq al-Sham and Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions composed primarily of Turkmen fighters managed to take control of Al-Bab, Bza’ah, Qabasin and Tall Batnan all in the matter of a few hours.

Meanwhile, the SAA’s Tiger Forces also continued their offensive into ISIS-held territories further south, capturing two villages near Deir Hafer around noon.

Share this article:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
ALSO READ  First guided tour of Aleppo's historic sites since city's liberation (VIDEO)
 
Chris Tomson
Student currently living in Denmark. Special focus on news from Syria, MENA map-making and strategical military analysis.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Notice: All comments represent the view of the commenter and not necessarily the views of AMN.

All comments that are not spam or wholly inappropriate are approved, we do not sort out opinions or points of view that are different from ours.

If your comment is held for moderation, please just be patient, it will be published unless it falls into one of the two categories as mentioned above.

12 COMMENTS

    • They have a million soldiers, they could swarm over both if they wished. Look at how they thought ‘screw it’ and just invaded northern syria to be in this situation, don’t underestimate what random, crazy stuff they’ll do.

      • IMHO Yes hestroy. And he is probably right – the SAA and SDF have the right experience and equipment to lick them. But the Turk army has numbers.

        IMHO You point at the real problem of Turkey. Their economy lacks the resources for a real war and it is fragile. Key sections like tourism are vulnerable or depend on foreign capital. You need a robust economy to feed a big army.

        The lagging economy has been the problem of the sick man at the Bosporus for 200 years. While the Ottoman empire at its height had lavish resources to spend on wars.

        • If we think about a continuous war, you are right. For example a war bw. Turkey and Iran. But the situation is different. Some militia groups wander around a country. Its not a continuous war.

          • Oğuz. IMHO You are right. A war against the wandering terrorists is much cheaper than a war between big states.

            But terrorist groups are not bound by international treaties and can do nasty things to an economy.

            Imagine a car bomb on a Istanbul bridge or before an Antalya hotel. That will really cost taxes.

  5. God bless Syria and the gov he put in place there Assad, Isishit only retreated because Turkish reanforcment came in with co ordanation to give Isis breathing space therefore the Turks will loose any battle it implies as punishment for it lies,.