The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

On the first day of Aleppo’s north battle… Russian forces mediate at SDF by the request of Turkey to stop the fight and extract about 15 wounded including members of the Turkish forces

The clashes continue at a violent pace between the attacking factions supported by Turkey against the Syria Democratic Forces in areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo, the clashes and violent confrontations between both parties are concentrated in areas in the vicinity of Ein Daqneh, which on the 27th of April 2016 witnessed an attack by the factions that claimed the lives of more than 50 fighters of the faction, back then the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received a copy of a video shows about 50 bodies placed on a tank carrier of the Syria Democratic Forces, and the bodies were roamed on the streets of Afrin city amid crowds of hundreds of citizens, and at that time the clashes killed 11 SDF fighters.

These clashes started by intense shelling by the Turkish forces and the factions, and coincided with the continuation of this intense shelling on sites of the Syria Democratic Forces and areas its control, also it was accompanied by exchange of targeting on the contact line and in the clash areas. Reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the clashes and the shelling have caused casualties in the ranks of both parties, also reliable sources informed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that Russia entered as an intermediary between the Turkish forces and the factions, and between the Syria Democratic Forces after Turkey’s report for the Russians about the presence of 5 injuries of the Turkish forces as well as about 10 other injured persons of the factions, of whom the faction fighters were not able to securing their withdrawal or transferring them from the battlefield to receive treatment, the sources confirmed that the Russians began to mediate to extract the injuries and transported them to receive treatment, by reaching a comprehensive or temporary calming; or by stopping the fight at the location of the wounded, also fighter of the Syria Democratic Forces were injured and some of them are in serious condition, while several fighters of the factions were killed in the clashes.

The violent clashes came after preparations of the Turkish forces and their backed factions to begin a military operation with the aim to regain control over areas they lost late 2015 and early 2016 in the areas located between Mara’ city and Deir Jamal area, and the factions also said that their aim of these operations is to “return tens of thousands of internally displaced people to their villages, from which they have displaced in the northern countryside of Aleppo”.

It worth mentioning that the shelling in the past few days by the Turkish forces and the rebel and Islamic factions and the exchange of targeting between the factions and SDF has killed 6 citizens and injured others, some of whom were critically injured, it is mentioned that 53 persons at least of the rebel and Islamic factions were killed and documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights; after an attack carried out on the 27th of April 2016 on the areas of al-Bilona and Ein Daqneh in the northern countryside of Aleppo, were the factions attempted to regain control over both areas which were previously controlled by the Syria Democratic Forces, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received a copy of a video shows about 50 bodies on a tank carrier of Syria Democratic Forces, and the bodies were toured the streets of Afrin city amid hundreds of citizens, also during the clashes 11 fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces were killed and others were injured.