Terrorists from the PKK's Syrian branch YPG continue to hide out in northern Syria's Tal Rifaat, which is expected to be the main target of a new possible Turkish military operation against the terrorist group.
Anadolu Agency (AA) has ventured into the Tal Rifaat area in northern Syria as Turkey prepares to launch a military operation against the YPG terrorists that control the town and its surroundings.
Tal Rifaat is located a mere 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the Turkish border with a front line in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone, where Turkish security forces provide security after clearing it of terrorists in 2016-2017.
The images taken by AA from the district's central parts and exits show that the terrorist organization has hoisted the banner of the Bashar Assad regime on a large hilltop flagpole overlooking the town.
The name of the Syrian regime's leader is traced on the face of the hill facing residential areas. However, no regime soldiers or militias are visible in the district center.
Sources who spoke to AA in Tal Rifaat said most of the terrorists were dressed in plain clothes, while only a small portion wore camouflage patterns. They usually hide in houses and tunnel-like recesses on the front line during the day and are spread across the district in the evening, they said.
The YPG, which seized the district from the opposition in 2016 after Russian airstrikes, settled there with thousands of its members and their families. Half of the terrorists' families have departed to regime-controlled areas since the beginning of June, due to Turkey's expected cross-border operation.
Turkey is gearing up for an anti-terror military operation against the YPG terrorist group in the Tal Rifaat area, which also depicted as under the Syrian regime's control.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had announced that the country is set to clear Tal Rifaat, along with the Manbij area, which is also near the Turkish border, of terrorist elements in a bid to eliminate the terror threat from the region.
"We are entering a new phase of our decision to establish a safe zone 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) wide south (of the Turkish-Syrian border). We are clearing Tal Rifaat and Manbij of terrorists," Erdoğan stated.
After popular movements and armed resistance surged in Syria in 2012, the Assad regime left some areas in the north of the country to the YPG on the condition that the terrorist group does not attack its forces.
The YPG provided strategic support for the regime and Russia during the siege and capture of Aleppo through the Sheikh Maqsoud district in its center.
The terrorist group entered a rapid rapprochement with the regime, at the encouragement of Moscow, at times when Turkish military action became more probable.
The group tried to deter Turkey by presenting the occupied areas as being under regime control.
However, this cooperation proved short-lived when the organization insisted on geographical dominance and political autonomy and they were unable to reach a final agreement with the regime.
In 2018, Assad regime militias attempted to go to Afrin, another town in northwestern Syria, to assist the terror organization amid Turkey's Operation Olive Branch on the area.
During Operation Peace Spring in 2019, the terrorist organization allowed regime forces into Manbij, where they were deployed on the front as the opposition was about to launch a push to liberate the region.
The Assad regime still has military checkpoints in the town center of Hassakeh and Qamishli further east. The sides there periodically engage in short conflicts arising from the struggle for dominance.
Since 2016, Ankara has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019).