Turkish military shells YPG/PKK positions in Syria

The Turkish military shelled terrorist PKK/YPG targets east of Syria's Ras al-Ayn, local sources said Saturday.

Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) liberated Ras al-Ayn town center from the terrorists as part of Operation Peace Spring.

Turkey carried out two cross-border operations west of the Euphrates river – Operation Euphrates Shield in August 2016 and Operation Olive Branch in January 2018 – to drive out terrorist groups, including the YPG and Daesh, from its borders. Turkish and Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces entered Afrin town center and liberated it from terrorists on March 18, 2018.

While the country liberated northwestern territories from Daesh, it also prevented the YPG from establishing a de facto autonomous region in Syria connecting the northwestern Afrin canton to the Kobani and Jazeera cantons in the northeast, which Ankara describes as a "terror corridor" posing a grave security threat to its national security.

Meanwhile, the Turkish military also established a second observation point east of the city of Saraqib in the Idlib countryside, a few days after the establishment of a point north of the city.