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Is Turkey isolating Azaz from rest of Syrian territory?

The Turkish-backed Free Syria Army in the northern countryside of Aleppo denies building a wall to isolate Azaz and claims that the wall is aimed at protecting the road between Azaz and Afrin from attacks by Kurdish forces and Syrian regime forces.
An aerial picture shows a camp for internally displaced people covered in snow, Azaz, in the rebel-controlled northern countryside of Aleppo province near the border with Turkey, Syria, Jan. 19, 2022.

ALEPPO, Syria — Media outlets close to the Syrian government have recently accused the Turkish army of isolating the city of Azaz from the cities where the government forces and the Afrin Liberation Forces of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) are deployed in the northern countryside of Aleppo.

On Jan. 13, the Athr Press website quoted anonymous sources as saying, “The Turkish forces brought a large number of cement blocks into the city of Azaz, which is under their control in the northern countryside of Aleppo, in order to build a buffer wall around the city.”

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