QAMISHLI, Syria — As part of the US-Turkish understandings on a security mechanism east of the Euphrates to address the so-called Turkish security concerns, the United States and Turkey conducted Sept. 12 their fourth joint overflight over northeastern Syria. This mechanism includes joint land and aerial patrols in the so-called safe zone between the towns of Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ain.
This came one day after the deputy commander of the US European Command, Lt. Gen. Stephen M. Twitty, and the deputy commander of the US Central Command, Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Bergeson, traveled Sept. 11 to the US-Turkey joint operations center in Akcakale, in the Turkish province of Sanliurfa, as part of the operations for the safe zone on the Syrian-Turkish border, according to a Turkish Defense Ministry statement reported on by the pro-government Anatolia news agency.
The visit came three days after the first US-Turkish joint ground patrol was conducted Sept. 8 in the border areas between the towns of Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ain, as part of the second phase of the agreement for a safe zone in northeastern Syria.
On Sept. 8, Reuters quoted a witness as saying that the Turkish military vehicles entered Syria near Tell Abyad to conduct joint patrols with the US army in a safe zone. It noted that vehicles with Turkish flags joined those in Syria with US flags some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Turkish-Syrian border, near Tell Abyad.
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