Kurdish Fighters to Deliver Key Town in Northern Aleppo to Syrian Army

TEHRAN (defapress)- The Kurdish fighters and the Syrian Army reached an agreement to hand over control over the strategic town of Tal Rifat in Northern Aleppo to Damascus forces, a Russian media outlet reported on Friday.

News ID: 68819

Date: 23 February 2018 - 13:59

The Arabic-language website of Sputnik quoted a security source as saying that the Syrian Army will enter the town of Tal Rifat in Northern Aleppo in coming hours.

It went on to say that according to an agreement between the Damascus forces and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the Kurds will hand over Tal Rifat to the army men.

The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel reported on Thursday that the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) delivered control of the Eastern districts of Aleppo, including Sheikh Maqsoud, al-Halak and Bustan Pasha, after coordination with the Syrian army.

Also, certain Syrian sources reported that the Syrian army units have entered Sheikh Khazar, al-Ashrafiyeh and al-Heidariyeh neighborhoods.

They added that the Syrian flag has been hoisted above those neighborhoods, adding that delivering control of the East Aleppo districts to the army was in line with implementing the agreement between the Kurds and the Syrian government on Afrin.

The Syrian and Kurdish officials have not confirmed the reports yet.

The development came after a YPG spokesman underlined that the Syrian army forces have been called to Afrin to end the Turkish army occupation and aggression.

"Deployment of a part of the Syrian army forces in Afrin is aimed at confronting the Turkish government attacks," Nouri Mahmoud was quoted as saying by the Kurdish media on Wednesday.

He stressed that the world admitted the Syrian army's high capabilities, and said, "They are responsible for protecting the Syrian territories and therefore, their presence is aimed at defending Syria's territorial integrity."

Mahmoud confirmed that a number of Syrian army forces were deployed in Afrin on Tuesday at the Kurds' demand.

Meantime, pro-Damascus popular forces entered the Kurdish-held town of Afrin, as Ankara said its forces have prevented the popular forces from entering Afrin in Northwestern Aleppo.

Al-Mayadeen TV reported that the Damascus-affiliated popular force have entered the town of Afrin via the Ziyareh passageway after leaving the towns of Nubl and al-Zahra.

It went on to say that the Turkish army's artillery units and Air Force pounded the movements and positions of the popular forces in Kafin region to prevent them from entering Afrin, adding that the popular forces launched retaliatory attack on the Turkish troops and destroyed one of their drones.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had previously announced that Ankara force would prevent the pro-Damascus popular forces from entering Afrin.