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As Turkey pounds northeast Syria, residents fear new operation

A year after Operation Peace Spring, the residents in the areas under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces fear a new Turkish operation.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebel fighters, mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, take part in a military parade marking the graduation of a new batch of cadets and attended by officials from the Turkey-backed opposition in the town of Jindayris, in the Afrin region of the northern Syrian rebel-held province of Aleppo, on November 14, 2020. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP) (Photo by BAKR ALKASEM/AFP via Getty Images)

For weeks, Turkey has been bombing areas in northeastern Syria and fighting by proxy through the Syrian opposition groups loyal to it against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Ain Issa, Manbij and the Aleppo countryside. The latter areas are under the control of the SDF, backed by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Syria.

Ilham Ahmed, head of the Syrian Democratic Council’s executive committee, the SDF’s political wing, reassured civilians that no new Turkish operation will strike their areas. Ahmed’s statement came during a press interview on Oct. 10, one year after Turkey's Operation Peace Spring against the SDF on Oct. 9, 2019, killed and displaced many civilians.

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