IDLIB — The city of Ain Issa in Raqqa’s northern countryside, controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is still reeling under daily shelling by the Turkish army's artillery and the Free Syrian Army (FSA). 

In a Dec. 10 report, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombings carried out by Turkey and the FSA forces displaced within a month about 7,000 civilians who feared a looming Turkish military operation.

In another Dec. 18 report, the war monitor said the SDF brought military reinforcements to Ain Issa district, a day after Turkey and its allies deployed reinforcements consisting of tanks, artillery, troop vehicles and four-wheel-drive vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns to the villages of Abu Kharza, Sallum and Rummana, opposite the villages of Hoshan and Khalidiya, adjacent to the M4 highway that links Aleppo to Hasakah.

On Dec. 19, the operations room of the 1st Corps of the FSA announced the start of the battle to liberate the city of Ain Issa. The announcement came one day after the FSA, backed by Turkish artillery, launched an attack in Ain Issa that ended with the FSA-affiliated Ahrar al-Sharqiya armed faction seizing several villages near the city.