Photo taken from southern Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar on Oct 12, 2019 shows smoke rising from the northern Syrian city of Ras al-Ain during an attack launched by Turkish army. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkish forces would "go down to a depth of 30-35 km" into Syrian territory as planned under Ankara's safe-zone project. Photo:Xinhua

 

Russia-backed Syrian forces wasted no time in taking advantage of an abrupt US retreat from Syria on Monday, deploying deep inside Kurdish-held territory south of the Turkish frontier less than 24 hours after Washington announced a full withdrawal.

Washington's former Kurdish allies said they had brought in the Syrian troops as an "emergency measure" to help fend off an assault by Turkey, launched last week with "a green light" from US President Donald Trump that the Kurds describe as a betrayal.

The Syrian government began deploying on Monday in a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his principal ally Russia, who gained a military foothold across the biggest swathe of the country that had been beyond their grasp.

Under the deal, government forces are poised to move into border areas from the town of Manbij in the west to Derik, 400 kilometers to the east.

Syrian state media reported that troops had entered Tel Tamer, a town on the strategically important M4 highway that runs east-west around 30 kilometers south of the frontier with Turkey.

State TV later showed residents welcoming Syrian forces into the town of Ain Issa, which lies on another part of the highway, hundreds of kilometers away. 

Ain Issa commands the northern approaches to Raqqa, former capital of the Islamic State "caliphate," which Kurdish fighters recaptured from the militants two years ago in one of the biggest victories of a US-led campaign.

Turkey denied that its offensive in northern Syria had allowed Islamic State prisoners to break out of detention camps, charging Monday that Kurdish militants had instead deliberately "emptied" a prison. 

"There is only one Daesh [Islamic State] prison in our [operation] region and we have seen it was emptied by the YPG [Kurdish People's Protection Units militia]," Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier hit out at "disinformation" reports that Turkey's offensive against Kurdish forces had allowed jihadists to escape. 

Kurdish authorities said Sunday that 800 Islamic State family members being held in a camp at Ain Issa had fled due to Turkish bombing.