Syrian Army Warns Turkey of Impending Battle

“The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has played a filthy role since the start of the aggression against Syria by sheltering, training, arming and sponsoring the terrorist groups financially and opening its borders to facilitate crossing of thousands of mercenary terrorists into the Syrian territories,” the statement said on Saturday.

Noting that the Syrian army and its allies’ victories against the terrorists, specially in Aleppo, have defused Erdogan’s plots against Syria, it added that Ankara has now resorted to intensified attacks and airstrikes against the villages and towns of Northern Aleppo and renders direct support for the terrorists with artillery fire and deployment of troops and tanks inside Syria to help them commit crimes against the civilians in Northern Aleppo.

The statement condemned Turkey’s violation of Syria’s territorial integrity and deployment of its forces in Syrian territories, warning that the Turkish forces will be confronted and treated like aggressors.

The residents who have escaped Aleppo said on Saturday that the militants stationed in the Eastern parts of the city have remained adamant to the repeated calls by the Syrian army-led forces to leave the city as they have pinned hope on Turkey to break the siege imposed by the Syrian army and its allies.

“The terrorists in Eastern Aleppo are opposing plans to evacuate the region to prolong the battle as long as possible in a bid to use impending attacks by the Turkey-affiliated militants to break the siege,” the local sources who have escaped the city in the last two days said.

“Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as al-Nusra) Front, Nur al-Din Zanki and Estaqam Kama Amart groups have insisted on staying in Eastern Aleppo waiting for Ankara’s order to its affiliate militants to intensify attacks so that these entrapped groups manage to break the siege of Aleppo,” the sources added.

According to the sources, hundreds of Fatah al-Sham Front militants have recently crossed Turkey’s border into the Northern Syrian province of Idlib to move to Aleppo to reinforce their besieged comrades in the city, they added.