Thread: Why is Turkey bombing Ain Issa?

In the last days the Turkish army started heavy artillery shelling of Ain Issa. This is not a coincidence but it is rather indicating what Turkey aims to do, especially as long as they have the possibilities they have during ... /1

... the last weeks of the Trump administration. As we have all seen in October 2019, Trump is not only economically but politically a strong supporter of Erdogan and his doings in Syria. The question is: Why is Erdogan specifically targeting this small town in Syria? /2

Ain Issa is in the southwest of the so called "Safe Zone" that Erdogan and his Jihadist Proxies of the SNA took over in fall 2019. The town is directly on the M4 highway, which is marked in green. Therefore the city and the highway are key for the rest of the AANES. /3

What many assume now is that Erdogan wants to take over this city and this part of the M4 highway to cut off the Northwestern parts of AANES from the rest of Rojava, especially the cities of Manbij and Kobani that Erdogan sees as a massive threat to Turkey. /4

To clear the whole border region between Turkey and Syria from Kurdish forces is not an assumption but an openly articulated goal of Erdogan. He even went as far as to say that Kurds aren't suited for this area thereby openly suggesting ethnic cleansing to be justified. /5