• Syria, bloody encirclement of the last Kurdish fief in Syria
  • Syria: The ceasefire in Syria only remains on paper

As in southern Lebanon, the border between the Autonomy of Northern Syria and the territory of Turkey is a continuous succession of small villages where men have enlisted in the so-called Self Defense Units and hide in a complex and sophisticated network of tunnels.

The road that leads to Tel Ghan reveals one of these underground constructions that had to be destroyed " because the engineers were wrong in the design," explains Howra Matae, the head of a small unit of Christian militiamen fighting alongside the Kurdish guerrillas in another nearby town, that of Mahriqan. One of these underground ducts that could see this newspaper sank several tens of meters into the earth.

"We are the first time we return to the base, we have spent all these last days underground," Howra Matae admitted, while tasting a tea in the small military post located a few kilometers from the dividing line. In this area, not far from the city of Qamishli, the inhabitants and combatants agree that the five-day ceasefire agreed between Turkey and the US is being respected .

However, Ankara and local Syrian units accuse each other of continuing to breach the cessation of hostilities around the Ras el Ain area, a city that has become the main target of the Turkish army and its allies.

"Our units have not carried out any military operation on all fronts of the battle, only in response (to the alleged Turkish attacks). However the attacks of the occupation army did not stop at Ras el Ain where 13 combatants have died and five civilians, "said Gabriel Kino, one of the spokesmen for the Autonomy militiamen.

For its part, the Turkish Defense Minister said they have suffered 14 "provocative attacks" since the ceasefire entered into force. The extent of this disruption of hostilities now depends on the meeting between the president of this first country, Tayyip Erdogan, and his Russian counterpart, Wladimir Putin, next week.

Erdogan threatened this Saturday with "crushing the heads" of Kurdish fighters if they do not withdraw within the period established in the current agreement, which for the latter does not include any withdrawal. But Erdogan warned that if he does not reach an agreement with Putin and the Syrian army loyal to Bashar al Assad, which has already been deployed near the common border, "we will implement our own plans . "

Videos recorded by Syrian paramilitaries fighting under their orders allowed to see how reinforcements are coming to the edge in case the fighting resumes. The risk of reactivating the conflict is enlarged as the great divergence in the position of the two factions passes hours before. Erdogan continues to demand that his troops control a "security strip" of 32 kilometers in Syrian territory along 440 kilometers of border - "from west to east", as he said this Friday - and include the construction of a dozen Turkish positions in that space, something that the Kurds reject flat.

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