DAMASCUS, Oct. 14 -- The Syrian army on Monday entered the city of Tabqa in the northern countryside of Raqqa Province, as part of the Syrian army's move to enter Kurdish-held areas to counter the ongoing Turkish assault in the region.
State news agency SANA said the army entered Tabqa and its namesake military air base as well as the town of Ayn Issa in the countryside of Raqqa.
These areas are all under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
A day earlier, a deal was reached between the Syrian government and the Kurdish forces under the mediation of Russia to counter Turkey's military progress.
The Syrian army started to deploy troops toward Kurdish-controlled areas near the Turkish border after the deal.
On Wednesday, Turkey and its allied Syrian rebel groups launched a military operation to eliminate Kurdish forces in northern Syria, in order to end what Ankara perceives as the threat of "terrorists and separatists" on its southern border and to impose a safe zone for millions of Syrian refugees being hosted inside Turkey.