Russia continues its efforts to deploy its military police in the contact areas with the Turkish forces and their supported factions in the northern countryside of Aleppo
Several reliable sources informed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the talks are still taking place between the Syria Democratic Forces and Russian forces, about the efforts of the Russian side to reach an agreement and approval by the Kurdish forces, on the deployment of Russian military police forces in the area between Marea city and Deir Jamal town in the northern countryside of Aleppo, on the contact lines with the Turkish forces and the factions supported by them. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that these Russian endeavors -which have not been approved by the Syria Democratic Forces yet- come with Turkey’s continued preparation for its forces to start a military operation that target to restore the villages that SDF controlled in late 2015 and early 2016, between Marea city and Deir Jamal, and to attack on Afrin area.
On the 13th of July major Kurdish sources rejected the rumors circulating about a Kurdish-Russian agreement regarding the YPG and SDF-controlled areas in Afrin and the northern countryside of Aleppo. Sources confirmed to the SOHR that items published from the Russian Statement regarding Afrin and Aleppo countryside including “the withdrawal from the towns located between Mare’ city and Deir Jamal area; the establishment of Turkish military bases in Afrin and handing their management over to civil councils after expelling rebel fighters from Afrin; and allowing access between the northern countryside of Aleppo and Idlib Province through a road to be opened later.” are completely untrue.
Sources also confirmed to the SOHR that YPG rejected the Russian attempts to deploy Russian military police or the regime’s police force in the villages and towns controlled by the SDF between Deir Jamal and Mare’ to spare the area a Turkish attack, amid persisting tension in Afrin and Aleppo countryside as a result of the continued exchange of shelling between the Turkish forces and their affiliate factions on one hand and the SDF on the other in areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo and the surroundings and outskirts of Afrin area.
Earlier, demonstrations were carried out in Afrin area which is controlled by YPG in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo, where tens of thousands of people carried out demonstrations denouncing the Turkish intervention and the military operation which Turkey intends to carry out against the Syria Democratic Forces in Afrin area and the northern countryside of Aleppo, and they also denounced the Turkish shelling which left casualties and injuries yesterday in villages controlled by the Syria Democratic forces, also widespread resentment prevails people in SDF controlled areas in the northern and northwestern countryside of Aleppo, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that this resentment came after the Turkish shelling that targeted villages controlled by the Syria Democratic Forces, killing a woman and 2 of her children and injuring about 20 others, also the Syrian Observatory published earlier that tensions prevails the northern countryside of Aleppo, near the Syrian-Turkish borders. The SOHR learned that this tension came after the arrival of the reinforcements of the Turkish forces to the southern countryside of Azaz. Tensions are also mixed up with anticipation in Afrin area for any developments in the current situation amid continued preparations of by the factions of the countryside of Aleppo along with the Turkish forces to carry out a wide-scale military operation against the Syria Democratic Forces in Afrin and the area located between Marea’ and Deir Jamal in the northern countryside of Aleppo, which aims to get thousands of displaced people to their villages, where the Afrin Area and its outskirts is witnessing an escalation of Turkish shelling and exchange of shelling between the factions and the Syria Democratic Forces along with the tension that prevailed the area since the 20th of June 2017, with the start entry of the Turkish reinforcement to the southern countryside of Azaz.