why you refrain from conducting urban warfare in the city
We dont refrain from that, those cities are just crunches of breads for the Turkish Army. Nothing would change even if we extended the safezone overally in north syria, not this week but months later Russia and Syria would push for gaining control over there. And we would have to hand those over despite of pressure from SNA.
Moreoever,you underestimate YPG /SDF, they were heavily armed by US , trained day by day through strategies to defend the cities, built up tunnels and prepared fortifications. they knew for years that Turkey would eventually crush their head,so we did and they were well prepared for that but they flee away like bugs.
Airforce isnt vital unless you conduct urban warfare, turkish SOF took an important role by clearing up the cities coarsely and let SNA do details in daytime.
ras al ayn, tal abyad and ordinary syrian "cities" is not even a neighborhood in my city, yes you should at the very least make significant gains inside the town in day 1 considering that the city is right at you border, but no, your SNA mercenaries are fooling around with the sorrounding villages capturing it in a painstakingly slow pace and not seizing multiple villages and hamlets all at the same time,its by day 3 (if im not mistaken) that you finally push inside the city itself. Actually by attacking across multiple fronts you actually disrupt the center of gravity of the YPG forcing them to either spread out or guess which city they should defend, but clearly you don't. when the announcement that Assad is about to capture Manbij, you responded by seizing 3 (yes three) outlying village north.
Turkish army should hire you, seems like you were fighting with PKK /YPG for 40 years and you understood their dirty strategies too well, Turkey was trying to be careful about civilian casualties, we are not barbaric like those in Syria (Count anyone who targets civilians without any secondary thought).
-failing to establish the original safe zones stretching from ayn al arab to hasakah.
-getting sanctioned by EU and US
-YPG is still there under the armpits of the russian
Situation is almost resolved, sanctions will be lifted in no time,
Trump has clearly stated PKK is terrorist organization and earlier accepted their link to YPG.
YPG/PKK no longer trusts US, I dont believe Russia has any profits on provocating them against Turkey.
Syria has no purpose on re-arming them against Turkey.
If somehow they deal on something like, YPG stays armed and holds control of citieis under Syrian Flag, Turkey would do operation like in Iraq. This is not new to us.
Could we do better if we didnt rely on SNA? I believe, indeed but casualties wouldnt be welcomed nicely in society. And we would be targeted way more since it would be considered as Turkey holding lands of syria.
Tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers were mobilized for this operation,if indeed it went in full force during the first hourds/days of the operation it could have quickly achieved its objectives. Yes there would have been casualties,probably but the YPG would have collapsed under heavy assaults of the Turkish army most probably.
The YPG and other Kurdish groups are nothing without air power from the US-led coalition,their lines of defence would have collapsed within the first hours. But instead Turkey went full slow and relied on poorly trained and organized SNA affiliated groups and now you have the YPG handing their positions to the Syrians and the Russians,in fact even operating alongside them. Clearly Turkey has missed a great initiative.
I believe civilians were the concern. YPG doesnt hesitate to blend in civilians ,or place them on front lines to avoid back fire. There has been numerous examples in Turkey.
Assad is about to capture Manbij
For your informaiton,its his own country he is securing control on there but not capturing.
or at the very least release your detained coup generals.
Yet you are pretty aware most of those civilians were terrorists ,got their weapons removed after died,and as Turkish people we didnt forget about dozens of "civilians" at basement of apartment which Europe and US was screaming as Today to save them, later we found out they were really " too much CIVILIANS"
