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Syrian Army Reaches Border Area, Deploys Around Turkish Zone

Agence France-Presse

   QAMISHLI, SYRIA - Syrian troops reached a key area near Turkey's border
   Saturday after sending further reinforcements to the region, in what a
   war monitor said was its largest deployment there in years.

   Syrian regime forces entered the provincial borders of the town of Ras
   al-Ain, state news agency SANA said.

   The regime forces entered the area, which was taken by Turkish forces
   following a weeks-long offensive against Syria's Kurds.

   Troops also deployed along a road stretching some 30 kilometers (18
   miles) south of the frontier, SANA added.

   Turkey and its Syrian proxies on October 9 launched a cross-border
   attack against Kurdish-held areas, grabbing a 120-kilometer-long
   (70-mile) swathe of Syrian land along the frontier.

   The incursion left hundreds dead and caused 300,000 people to flee
   their homes, in the latest humanitarian crisis in Syria's brutal
   eight-year war.

   This week, Turkey and Russia 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.

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