• Syria, exchange of accusations between Ankara and Kurds "violated the ceasefire"
  • Truce violated in Syria. But Trump: "It will succeed, everyone wants it"
  • Syria, US-Turkey agreement: 5-day truce to allow the withdrawal of the Kurds

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October 20, 2019The thousand US soldiers who received the withdrawal order from Syria will move to Iraq from where operations against the self-styled Islamic state will continue and defend the country: US Defense Secretary Mark Esper reported.

The statement by the head of the Pentagon Mark Esper makes it clear for the first time where the American troops who left Syria will go and how the fight against ISIS could continue. Esper said he had talked to his Iraqi counterpart about a plan to move the more than 700 troops leaving Syria to western Iraq. It is clear that the military return home, which was one of the objectives of the withdrawal declared by Trump, will not happen soon. "It's time to bring our soldiers home," the president said last Wednesday. While Esper was leaving Washington on Saturday, US troops were still withdrawing from northern Syria after the invasion of Turkey in the border region. Meanwhile, sporadic clashes continued between the fighters supported by Turkey and the Kurdish-Syrian forces allied with the United States, despite the five-day ceasefire agreement signed between the United States and Turkey

Kurdish red crescent: 20 civilians killed
Twenty Kurdish civilians have been killed by Kurdish forces in the north-east of Syria since the beginning of the truce announced Thursday. The Kurdish Red Crescent reports that three people died in the hospital in the Syrian border town of Ras al Ayn. "Since the ceasefire agreement between Syrian democratic forces (FDS) and the Turkish government, Kurdish Red Crescent teams have recorded 20 civilians killed and 20 wounded," the NGO said in its daily bulletin. In the city of Ras al Ain, in northern Syria, Turkish attacks and Syrian rebels backed by Ankara have concentrated, practically besieging the population.

Ankara: Turkish soldier killed by the Kurds
A Turkish soldier was killed in a Kurdish attack in the north-east of Syria, on the third day of the five-day truce announced by US mediation. The Ankara Ministry of Defense reported this. "One of our heroic comrades fell a martyr and another was injured after an attack with anti-tank bullets and light weapons by terrorists while they were on a reconnaissance and surveillance mission" in the Tal Abyad area, he wrote the ministry. The Turkish soldiers "returned fire for defense", explains Ankara. In recent days, the Kurds had accused the Turkish army - and the allied militias - of not respecting the ceasefire.