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2019-10-18 Syria-Lebanon-Iran
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Syria Kurds call for civilian exit as Turkey encircles Ras Al-Ain
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[AlAhram] Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria on Thursday called for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from a flashpoint border town encircled by Ankara's forces, as The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
 ...Qatar's satrapy in Asia Minor...
's offensive entered its ninth day.
Ottoman Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies have fully encircled Ras al-Ain, a key border town where Kurdish fighters have been putting up stiff resistance.
"It is the first real advance of the Ottoman Turkish forces inside the city, following fierce resistance by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)," the Britannia-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.
Massively outgunned by the Ottoman Turkish army and its airforce, the Kurdish administration pleaded to allow civilians to exit the town that Turkey aims to capture.
It called for "urgent intervention to open a safe humanitarian corridor to evacuate dead and maimed civilians trapped in Ras al-Ain".
Ankara's Syrian proxies -- mostly Arab and Turkmen former rebels they use as a ground force -- hit a hospital in the town on Thursday, trapping patients and staff inside, the Observatory said.
The monitor said the extent of damage in the facility was not yet clear.
The attack came as violent festivities raged inside the town, according to the Observatory and Syrian rebel fighters.
"The battles are at their most intense," said Abu Imran al-Homsi, a rebel commander fighting alongside Ankara's forces.
"We have surrounded (Ras al-Ain) from all sides and cut off supply lines," another rebel commander told AFP.
Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said that Ankara's forces had taken about half of the town by Thursday morning.
"There have been intensive air strikes on Ras al-Ain over the past three days," he said.
Kurdish-led SDF forces quickly lost a long stretch of border when Turkey launched its assault on October 9.
They organised a defence of Ras al-Ain, however, with a network of tunnels, berms and trenches that held off Ottoman Turkish forces and their proxies for about a week.
An AFP correspondent on the Ottoman Turkish side of the Ras al-Ain front line said there was constant gunfire and blasts from artillery and air strikes.
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Posted by trailing wife 2019-10-18 00:00||
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