(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish-backed Syrian National Army have seized new ground from regime-backed Kuridish forces near the town of Ras al-Ain in northeastern Syria as clashes are still ongoing, local activists said Monday.
The clashes between both sides in a zone between the towns of Tal Tamr and Ras al-Ain left dozens dead since Saturday .
The National Army has seized control of 8 villages, field sources say.
On Saturday, state-run news agency SANA said earlier regime forces had entered the provincial borders of Ras al-Ain near Turkey's border, an area that was taken by Turkish forces in the latter's weeks-long offensive against Syria's Kurds.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian regime's deployment there was its largest in years.
Regime troops had also deployed along a road stretching some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the frontier, SANA said.
Turkey and the National Syrian Army on October 9 launched a cross-border attack against Kurdish-held areas, grabbing a 120-kilometre-long (70-mile) swathe of Syrian land along the frontier.
The operation left hundreds dead and caused 300,000 people to flee their homes, in the latest humanitarian crisis in Syria's brutal eight-year war.
Turkey and Russia last week struck a deal in Sochi for more Kurdish forces to withdraw from the frontier on both sides of that Turkish-held area under the supervision of Russian and Syrian forces.
Moscow has said 300 Russian military police had arrived in Syria to help ensure Kurdish forces withdraw to a line 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border in keeping with Tuesday's agreement.
Ankara eventually wants to set up a buffer zone on Syrian soil along the entire length of its 440-kilometre-long border, including to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.
The SDF has objected to some provisions of the Sochi agreement and it has so far maintained several border posts.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Saturday that Ankara would "clear terrorists" on its border if the Kurdish forces, which his country view as an offshoot of its own banned insurgency, did not withdraw by the deadline.
(Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
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