added Army The American official said in a statement that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces inspected the launch site of the two missiles and found a third missile that had not been launched.
The base is located in the Syrian city of Shaddadi.
Safe area
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the military operations in northern Syria aim to establish a “security belt from west to east” along Turkey’s southern borders.
This area will de facto include the city of Kobani, which the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, Kurdish) seized in 2015 from ISIS with the support of the United States.
Kobani is the last area to escape the control of the Turkish army, which has been deployed since 2019 along the borders in the Syrian territories.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that a relative calm prevailed Friday in northern Syria after a quiet night. He added to Agence France-Presse that the Turkish artillery shelling resumed only in Al-Hasakah Governorate (northeast), but he did not mention any casualties.
“With the security belt we are establishing outside our borders, we will defend the rights of millions of innocent women and children,” Erdogan said in a speech marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
“God willing, we will accomplish this (the area) along our entire border from west to east as soon as possible,” he added.
Ankara said the attack, which killed six people and wounded 81 others in central Istanbul on November 13, was planned in Kobani, which the Kurds denied.
However, during the past six days, the aerial bombardment and artillery fire focused on areas where the Turkish authorities say they are targeting sites of the Kurdistan Workers Party and its allies from the People’s Protection Units, the largest component of the “SDF”.
All denied involvement in the attack.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar met Thursday, respectively, with the US ambassador and his Russian counterpart, whose countries called on Ankara to “exercise restraint.”
For its part, the private TV channel “NTV” reported that Akar reminded the two ambassadors of the agreement reached in 2019 between Turkey, the United States and Russia, at the end of a previous Turkish attack, and which requires the withdrawal of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units 30 kilometers from the border.
Washington called on Wednesday evening for an “immediate halt to the escalation in northern Syria,” stressing that it is “very concerned about the recent military actions that destabilize the region and threaten our common goal of combating ISIS, and endanger civilians and American personnel,” according to the US State Department.
The Turkish president, who intends to launch a ground offensive “when the time comes,” identified the Syrian towns “Tal Rifaat, Manbij and Ayn al-Arab (Kobani, as the Kurds call it)” to complete his 30-kilometer-wide security zone along the southern border.
But this ground offensive is not expected to be launched immediately, a Turkish official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Abd al-Qadir Selvi, a columnist for Hurriyet newspaper who is considered very close to the president, said during the past week that the Turkish army must first accomplish the “Sword Claw” operation, which has been underway since April against Kurdish positions in northern Iraq.
“After that, the countdown to the ground operation against Syria must begin, and this time, a much larger operation is being planned,” he added.
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