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Syria has deployed one of its elite military formations in the northern region amid mounting tensions between the Turkish military and Kurdish forces.
Videos from June 19 showed several convoys of the 105th Mechanized Brigade of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) Republican Guard heading towards the northern Aleppo countryside. The convoys were carrying main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled howitzers and hundreds of troops.
The 105th Mechanized Brigade is one of Syria’s most experienced armored formations. The brigade halted rebels’ advance on several directions around Damascus in the early years of the war and later led operations to secure much of the capital’s outskirts.
A Syrian military source told SouthFront that the elite brigade sent as many as 40 tanks among other equipment to the northern Aleppo countryside.
The brigade’s units were reportedly deployed near the city of Manbij, which is held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SAA is allowed to deploy within the group’s areas in the northern Aleppo countryside under an agreement that was reached some five years ago.
The deployment came following a serious confrontation between the Turkish military and the SDF in the northern Aleppo countryside.
Last week, the Turkish military and its proxies launched a series of artillery and drone strikes in the northern Aleppo countryside. News sources close to the SDF said that the Turkish strikes killed 21 people, including fighters of the group, Syrian soldiers and civilians. Many others were wounded.
The SDF responded by shelling Turkish bases and refugee camps in the northern Aleppo countryside. The group’s fire reached the Oncupinar region in southern Turkey. However, there were no Turkish casualties.
The deployment of the Republican Guard in northern Aleppo may be meant to deter both the Turkish military and the SDF, in order to de-escalate tensions in the region.
Meanwhile, Ankara and Damascus remain engaged in normalization talks backed by Russia and Iran. Only an agreement between the two counties could help stabilize northern Syria. Nevertheless, such an agreement does not appear to be near.
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