Ankara sends vehicles to support security forces in northern Syria

Six vehicles were sent by Turkey's gendarmerie forces to northern Syria's Jarablus province to contribute to security in the region, which was cleared of terrorist elements by two cross-border military operations.

The vehicles will be used to effectively check traffic, as sporadic attacks have been carried out with bomb-laden vehicles in northern Syria, most likely perpetrated by the PKK and its Syrian affiliate, the People's Protection Units (YPG).

Jarablus was liberated from Daesh terrorists by Turkey's Operation Euphrates Shield in September 2016. The operation, which concluded in March 2017, was meant to clear terrorists from areas of Syria bordering Turkey.

During the training program following Operation Euphrates Shield, more than 5,000 Syrians participated in five different police academies. Syrians, who participated in December 2017, started their duties as "Special Forces" in the Syrian towns of al-Bab, Azaz, Jarablus and Al-Rai. The trained troops are responsible for traffic policing, patrols, maintaining public order and counterterror operations, and often set up checkpoints across the town. In a latest attempt to destabilize to region, a bomb-laden motorcycle was detonated in Jarablus, wounded 12 civilians with two of them in critical condition. While no group has taken responsibility so far, security forces conside

r that the attack was carried out by YPG militants, which were driven from northwestern Syria with Operation Olive Branch in 2018.

Also on 9 March, three members of Free Syrian Army (FSA) were killed in a bomb attack in the Jarablus district center.