The ground attack by the Turkish-controlled SNA (Syrian National Army) on the small town of Ain Issa in the Autonomous Region of North and East Syria (AANES) was completely foiled by the Military Council of Girê Spî (Tall Abyad).

19 mercenaries were killed and others injured, as the military council affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Sunday evening.

The focus of the SNA attacks was the village of Sigêro (also Sakiro and Sukayru), which is located about twenty kilometers east of the city center of Ain Issa. After Turkish proxy troops bombed the town, fighting broke out for several hours in which, according to the military council, five mercenaries were initially killed.

Reinforcements that had moved in from the occupation zone around the town of Girê Spî, which has been occupied by Turkey and its jihadist militias since 2019, were intercepted and also came under fire. Two other mercenaries were killed and seven were injured, said the statement.

The attacks near Ain Issa took place at the same time as an SNA ground offensive against villages near the small town of Til Temir and the attacks on Manbij that had been ongoing for days. The military councils of Girê Spî, Til Temir and Manbij are among the SDF that began a security operation against ISIS cells and criminal networks in the eastern Syrian region of Deir ez-Zor just over a week ago. Both the Syrian regime and the Turkish state are trying to thwart the operation and expand the front lines.

Ain Issa is located south of the Turkish occupation zone in northern Syria and is of strategic importance as a link between the self-governing Euphrates regions with Kobanê in its center and Jazira. Since 2019, the city has been in the crosshairs of Turkey and its Islamist proxy forces as part of a war of attrition, with phases of high intensity alternating with phases of low intensity.

Dozens of villages in the region have already been destroyed and depopulated by Turkish military violence. A Turkish air offensive last November reduced large parts of the infrastructure to rubble and ash.