Social media accounts recently published a video clip showing a group of militants on board vehicles, claiming that the video shows members of the Syrian factions on their way to the city of Tal Rifaat in Aleppo, “Large and massive convoys of Syrian factions supported by “Turkey” on their way to “Tal Rifaat” which is controlled by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.”
Kashif verified the video via reverse search on “Google Images” tool and found that it is old and incorrectly linked to the city of Tal Rifaat. On 17/10/2024, North Press Agency published a cropped image from the video clip in a report titled: “Military mobilization and factional clashes between “Al-Shamiya” and “Al-Mushtaraka” in the countryside of Aleppo,” i.e. before the start of the “Deterrence of Aggression” operation on 27/11/2024.
The agency stated that the photo is being circulated as documentation of “the military reinforcements of the joint force in the Aleppo countryside.”
North Press added that “the cities of Afrin, Azaz, Mare’, Al-Bab and villages affiliated with them in the countryside of Aleppo witnessed a military alert and factional clashes against the backdrop of the “Joint Force” faction raiding headquarters affiliated with the “Falcons of the North” faction, which is taking refuge in the “Al-Sham Front” after the decision to dissolve it.”
Medyanın Elli Tonu X account on also published the circulated video on 17/10/2024, and mentioned that it documents sending of the joint force to Afrin and Azaz, where the clashes continued.
According to a report published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on 17/10/2024, violent clashes took place between the Levant Front and the Northern Falcons Brigade on one hand, and the Joint Force and Sultan Murad on the other, in the villages of Kafr Jannah and Qatma in the Sharan district in the Afrin countryside. As a result of the clashes between the Levant Front and the Joint Force, the Azaz-Afrin road was cut off.
The opposition factions announced on Wednesday 27/11/2024 the start of a military operation called “Deterrence of Aggression.”
Tthe opposition factions announced on Sunday 1/12/2024 their control over
several areas in Aleppo Governorate, including the city of Tal Rifaat, which is under the control of the Kurdish People’s Protection Forces, the villages of Al-Shaatha, Al-Talisiyya, and Tal Al-Rai in the northern Hama countryside, the military colleges in Aleppo, and the Aleppo Central Prison.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on 1/12/2024 that the Syrian regime forces sent large reinforcements and repositioned themselves in strategic areas in the northern and western Hama countryside, in light of the decline in the intensity of the battles after the opposition factions took control of the cities of Morek, Kafr Zita, Al-Lataminah and Khan Sheikhoun in the Hama and Idlib countrysides.
