Al-Jazeera correspondent said that the Turkish army and the Syrian armed opposition arrived at the outskirts of the city of Tal Abyad in the northern Raqqa countryside, and are preparing to storm, as part of the military operation, which Turkey called the "spring of peace." Meanwhile, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced the death of a Turkish soldier and the injury of three others in clashes with Kurdish militants.

The correspondent added that Turkish and Syrian opposition forces reached a depth of eight kilometers inside Syria, and took control of 15 villages in the vicinity of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain.

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Military base
Sources of the island also said that Turkish forces have established a military base between the cities of Seluk and Tal Abyad on the Syrian-Turkish border, and they have blocked the road between the two cities.

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday the launch of his country's army in cooperation with the Syrian National Army (belonging to the Syrian opposition) operation "spring of peace" in the area east of the Euphrates in northern Syria.

The military operation seeks to eliminate what Turkey calls the "terrorist corridor" on its southern border, establish peace and stability, and establish a "safe zone" to which Turkey is transferring part of the Syrian refugees on its territory.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the aim of the first phase of the "spring of peace" operation is to penetrate 30 kilometers deep into Syrian territory.

On the ground, the correspondent of Al-Jazeera reported the killing of six civilians and wounding dozens of others by shelling on the Turkish border towns with Syria, while the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced that the death toll in the ranks of the Kurdish People's Protection Units reached 228 members.

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Intensive raids
Yesterday evening, Turkish warplanes launched intensive raids on the city of Tel Abyad, as military trucks and reinforcements arrived at the Turkish border to the outskirts of the city.

The SDF said air strikes and Turkish bombing left nine civilians dead in northeastern Syria since Ankara launched its offensive in the area on Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera correspondent confirmed that the Turkish and Syrian opposition forces took control of several villages in the vicinity of the city of Tel Abyad, including the villages of Bir Ashik and Hamidiya, and that they reached a depth of eight kilometers inside Syria.

The correspondent reported earlier that the Turkish and Syrian national armies took control of the villages of Mishrafa and Deedat in the city of Tel Abyad, and the village of Keshto in Ras al-Ain. The Anatolia news agency reported that Turkish and Syrian National Army forces also took control of the villages of Barzan, Jadida and Kassas.

The military operation in northern Syria has driven more than 60,000 civilians from their homes, and the towns of Ras al-Ain and al-Darbasiyah are almost empty, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.