A look at Tell Rifaat
According to some pro-Turkish sources, the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) started a push to take control of the city of Tell Rifaat, located southeast of the city of Afrin in northern Syria, on March 27. Unconfirmed reports also appeared that the TAF and the FSA had already entered the town.
When Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch started on January 20, Tell Rifaat was controlled by a force led by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Later, the YPG shared control over the Tell Rifaat coutnryside to the National Defense Forces – a pro-government militia integrated into the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
If it’s confirmed that the TAF and the FSA entered Tell Rifaat, this will mean that Ankara and the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance had reached a kind of behind the scene deal on handing over control of the city to Turkey and its proxies.
Unconfirmed reports also started appearing that the NDF started withdrawing from all the former YPG-held areas in which it had been deployed south of Afrin over the last month.
The situation is developing.
