syria an area mainly controlled by turkish and rebel forces let's go now to our correspondent charles stratford he's joining us live from atlanta i know you've been seeing and hearing those are all eventualities what are you hearing about the turkish operation so far. well certainly in the last hour or so things have quietened down in this immediate area but up until then as you say for the last 5 or 6 hours before then there was a heavy biology's of artillery rockets fired and then it was close to the time where the yet turkish defense ministry announced that a ground incursion had begun and there was a lot of heavy arms fire heavy machine gun fire quite close to where we are now a lot of traceable so traces that we could see there has been some reaction certainly from the s.d.f. in the last couple of hours as well most notably one from the chief spokesperson who denied that that ground incursion had started certainly in the in the immediate area to where we are now there were reports as well in the turkish media all of mortars fired by kurdish forces into into turkey no reports of casualties. huge

in a moment we'll be live with charles stratford he is monitoring the situation on the border between turkey and syria 1st this report from saying a hoarder. turkish airstrikes and artillery bombardment are targeting the defenses of the kurdish led syrian democratic forces as the turkish army advances into northeast syria on some fronts turkish soldiers and their local allies the opposition syrian national army pushed a few kilometers deep capturing several villages in mainly spare sleep populated areas the s. the f. is outgunned and outmanned by the 2nd largest army in the nato alliance but kurdish led forces are putting up resistance promising to make any battle long and hard the flat terrain however will make it difficult to hold their ground in the face of heavy firepower their media focus of turkey's air and ground operation is a 100 kilometer stretch of territory from the syrian border town of tell me to the border town of ras al-ain to the east it is an area of the u.s. military withdrew from earlier this week it seems the turkish army and its local allies want to secure areas

meeting 1st we'll cross over to charles stratford he is joining us from the turkish syrian border if we just take a step back charles for a moment just tell us what more you're learning about the military agreements that have been made between the syrian government and the s.d.f. and what impact that's having on the ground. well what we do know is you are saying there in the introduction is that the syrian army has certainly moved into positions. close to the border here the town behind me is russell and now they're seeing some of the faces fighting in recent days and in fact he was about 2 hours ago now that the turkish defense ministry for the 2nd time this week declared that it had full control over that town the fighting there has been very fierce very close to the line if you call this way is a town called tell some other which we understand according to syrian news agency footage syrian the syrian army is very much there the syrian army's now positioned in a number of different towns heading along the border to the west is the furthest eastern position including as you say town

on the turkey syria border let's get a live update now from charles stratford he's also joining us from turkey's border with syria in the town of. charles what's the latest what do you have for us. well certainly in the last couple of hours in this immediate area there has been a low in the fighting we've heard a few will it sound to be outgoing artillery fire but certainly in comparison to the situation a few hours ago it has been a lot quieter as you say according to asil season seem to be backed up by. a as many as 9 civilians may have been killed in want to believe to be artillery fire from the syrian side including a 9 month old baby that was in sri different locations according to a civil lawsuit she's with the free syrian army of a coolness the syrian opposition which of course of being drafted in by the 6 to take part in this operation the turks having back them for years during the syrian revolution absolute says are telling us that you have to say there was fighters have taken control of potentially 5 villages in the east and you for each use area and food deliveries around th

northeastern syria simcoe say only there for us in istanbul thank you said and well let's now go to charles stratford he is live for us in action on the tacky syria border charles how soon could we be expecting texas troop movements where you are because no one's been saying his army is ready to launch operations at any moment. yeah it's very difficult to predict certainly we're getting unconfirmed reports in the turkish media that there was some shelling that has taken place in recent hours a town called. across the border which we understand well it's to the east of here quite at quite a distance from here behind me across the border there is the town of. interestingly there is that in fact a joint turkish and us command station based here and we see the u.s. and the turks taking part in patrols in this area we also understand the reports around 2 dozen u.s. fool sees certainly some of those 2 dozen actually withdrew from. in the last certainly the last 24 hours it's very difficult to say if indeed any military operation does happen when in fact it will we will so hearing though certainly reports last

humanitarian crisis and further complicate the 8 year conflict well in a moment we'll go live to charles stratford heis standing by on the border between turkey and syria 1st we have this report from dana harder. turkish airstrikes and artillery bombardment are targeting the defenses of the kurdish led syrian democratic forces as the turkish army advances into northeast syria on some fronts turkish soldiers and their local allies the opposition syrian national army pushed a few kilometers deep capturing several villages in mainly spare sleep populated areas the s. the f. is outgunned and outmanned by the 2nd largest army in the nato alliance a kurdish led forces are putting up resistance promising to make any battle long and hard the flat terrain however will make it difficult to hold their ground in the face of heavy firepower their media focus of turkey's air and ground operation is a 100 kilometer stretch of territory from the syrian border town of tell me to the border town of ras al-ain to the east it is an area the u.s. military would drew from earlier this week it seems that turkish army and i

says 130000 people have now been displaced by the escalating violence let's go live now to charles stratford he's in chuckle a on the turkish syrian border so 1st of all charles tell us what's going on in some new. well certainly there's been quite a heavy artillery bombardment the small inning on positions we understand around the town of tel aviv which is a couple of kilometers in that direction is you said in your intro we are hearing the pull from syrian rebel fighters that up dissipating in this operation with us that they claim to have taken large parts of control of that town some of which is around 10 to 15 kilometers south of tel aviv so if that is true and confirmed it shows you the depths of which turkish full season pushed into syria and that town is significant because it is potentially a supply route full the turkish full scenes we understand that they currently control around 13 villages around tel aviv which respects to further east that town russell laine that the turkish military yesterday said that they were now in full control of that was subsequently disputed by the s.d.a. fr

let's talk straight now to charles stratford he's an act chatelaine on the turkey syria border that brings up to speed 1st of all charlie with the fighting was happening on the ground. well sami according to the syrian rebels just updating in this offensive with dish military their knives now saying that they have taken control of the center of tel aviv this town on the western side of this initial offensive by the what they describe is an issue but it's a huge military attack on that has come under heavy bombardment 3 days at least now . we understand the population which. majority at least. fled as that offensive began we're also hearing that. the they could well be over reports on going fighting around the town of. russell i now that is the other highly significant to have for this to sit on the eastern side of this initial operation saying that yesterday the military actually said they had taken full control of the russell line they swarming. in fact it had to retreat a little bit after facing a strong a counterattack by the s.b.a. . and as i say we now understand the street to street

we'll go to her but 1st we're going to talk to charles stratford in china who's on the turkish side of the border charles we've been hearing from president that he is not going to relent until he's achieved his objectives looking behind you there you can see the smoke clearly that fighting goes on. yeah the fighting here today has been intense the town behind me russell i and this is very much has been very much the focus of attention over since basically this operation started the so-called 1st phase of this operation according to the turkish military we've seen artillery fire heard a lot of heavy gunfire all day that black smoke we believe could well be a gas station a petrol station that has been hit we understand that the turkish military says that least it has made gains southwest of the city a lot of the action though has been to the east we're also hearing that we're hearing reports that we cannot confirm of clashes around that flashpoint city of money base which is around 120 kilometers to my west that city of course as we know was was taken over by the syrian army yesterday as part of a deal with the kurdish forces and we understand tha

grows for sin and cos he is live for us in istanbul we're going to speak to her shortly in just about what what president one had to say we're going to go 1st to charles stratford in chelan on the turkish side of the border and charles we were just hearing there from president earlier one about his objectives and saying he will not finish until he is achieved those objectives give us a sense of how that's being achieved on the ground toward extend into turkey meeting those objectives. well certainly where we're standing here branch of the town of russell ion across the border those objectives in terms of clearing out kurdish fighters that he describes as terrorist from that area seems to be proving a big challenge this being some very heavy fighting. in that town today a lot of heavy weapons we can hear being used we hear in jets overhead a lot of artillery a lot of artillery fire as well now this town has been contested since day one and repeatedly victory has been declared by both sides so obviously a huge challenge here that would suggest we understand certainly according to the military that they've made it they're claiming to have made gains pushing south

those are the demands among the 13 points that he has negotiated with the united states in his meeting with the u.s. vice president mike pence charles stratford is standing by in chelan near turkey's border with syria so as we just discussed some of these issues but right now i can still see smoke out of there in the background and there has still been some fighting hasn't there is this as this cease fire slowly takes effect. toole intents and purposes certainly according to what we've seen and heard the cease fire does seem to be holding hey when we arrived early this morning early this morning sorry there was the sound of gunfire and what we understood could well be light artillery that was among some news organizations some. being reported as an indication that the cease fire in fact being being broken but certainly according to the free syrian army fighters the syrian rebels that we've spoken to they say that the situation is calm we understand that that smoke you can see behind me is some sort of fire is not necessarily to do with any kind of violation of the cease fire very interesting though listening to again president ordered a war o

we'll check in with charles stratford shortly about the fighting that's happening on the ground he's joining us near the turkish syrian border 1st though across over to politico who is monitoring diplomatic developments from washington d.c. and you know just about 24 hours ago when you and i were speaking on the air we heard from pretty much say let them do whatever they want over there let them deal with it by themselves how difficult does that make the job of the vice president and the secretary of state who are there to on a mandate really to negotiate with on a cease fire. it was head scratching really because it seems that the president's public statements are making pence's and pump his mission nearly impossible because although the president sent them over there to give that stark warning that you're caught him he could be decimated he's actually saying the same time i don't really care what happens what happens is between the syria and turkey and he denigrated the kurds saying there are no angels there so the president really sending mixed messages we saw a quick photo of mik

he can to of verts the turks. from resuming their military campaign charles stratford on the turkish syrian border keeping an eye on things there for us thank you charles well now let's go to sochi for more on those talks between the russian and turkish leaders step fasten is that step we are all counting down to the end of this cease fire it seems that mr pearson is the main power broker now in the syria conflict and the russians i believe lord he said they want more information from ankara about their plans what else do they want. well all eyes indeed are here on this meeting inside she only around 6 hours until this cease fire will expire both leaders have now been in talks for more than 2 and a half hours it was actually scheduled to have been finished already and we were expecting some statements have come out already but there is a lot to discuss president putin has a very big ambitious plan for this peace in syria he wants to connect turkey with the syrian government and also the syrian government with the kurds and he wants to go back to an agreement that was made in 1908 between turkey and syria which sort

shelling is now displaced more than 100000 people so he's captured 15 villages and set up a military base at the border an update from charles stratford. which is right on turkey's border with syria charles take us through what's happening there. yes you're right we are i suppose about a bottle way behind me is the syrian border the town of russell i. now this is being the target of intense bombardment by turkish forces for the last couple of days this is the furthest eastern section if you like of what the turkish military described as their 1st phase in this operation. they're concentrating on an area from here going west around 100 kilometers down the border to the town of tel i'll be out. on the stand certainly from sources that we have amongst the free syrian army some of these all the syrian fighters that were brought over by the turks turkey has backed them in syria for many years and they are taking part in a ground operation now the turkish vice president has come out in the last few minutes seemingly and has said that turkish forces have pushed in side syria in this area for kilometers and 8 kilometers into the area around t

special envoy for syria is in damascus he's calling for an immediate end to the turkish operation citing humanitarian concerts and will go to charles stratford in china and pienaar on the turkish syrian border shortly but 1st we're joined by sin i'm who is joining us out of turkey. that speech that we heard from president was very much i'm good rallying his party and rallying the people and there was a strong message of defiance wasn't there. well yes see here again repeat the same lines actually when you listen to whole of his speech he said that this military operation is not a war this is a security measure turkey targets what it and the e.u. and the u.s. calls a terrorist organization and turkey doesn't want what they call a terrorist corridor or by its border and don as don was actually trying to make clear some of the some of the things because looking at looking at the media coverage and the internet lack of international support to a nato ally ancora is aware that they are gaining in the battlefield on the ground but they're kind of losing when it comes to international media coverage and international p.r. so i don't try to underlin

stratford keeping an eye on things for us at the 3 attack you want to thank you charles. joshua landis is the director of the center for middle east studies at the university of oklahoma and he says that trump has little knowledge of what might become of texas full of kurdish forces i'm sorry if turkey you know want to as a military offensive this shows the real collapse of the foreign policy process in the white house we've seen this before in it in korea decisions and tweets that were made about the iran situation in the gulf just a week ago people are guessing what america's going to do next and this is this is clearly not good trump wants to get america out of syria which is understandable he promised in his campaign that he would end the stupid wars in the middle east and he wants to fill some of that now that makes sense the trouble is you knows very little promise oblio about the long history between the kurds and turkey he doesn't realize how brutal the turkish army will be once it gets amongst the kurds iraq's president has condemned attacks on protest as during violent anti-government demonstrations in a t.v. address barham salih parliament to address protest as de

that's a day after he threatened to ruin turkey's economy we have a correspondents covering developments in washington d.c. the u.n. and istanbul but 1st we cross over to charles stratford has joining us from the on turkey's border with syria and that is where charles we are hearing that there are civilian deaths. that's right yes according to the local government here we understand. at least 2 possibly 3 people were killed here including a 9 month old baby and a woman and another one possibly 2 in another area we understand. could well be responsible for. up to 70 people injured as well showing you just what kind of risks taking in this military operation when we're seeing the s.d.f. responding to this incredible bombardment over the last approximate sort of 24 hours or so i suppose now. bab in the continued right the way through the day it's been relatively quiet here in the last hour also we've heard a few outgoing artillery shells oversea charges in positions in the town of tal lobby and we understand which is just behind me i suppose the older is is a round about half a kilometer away and overseas so let's go out to the hundreds of thousands of civilians in these a