Syria cease-fire in question after fighting, shelling reported | Fox News

Syria cease-fire in question after fighting, shelling reported | Fox News

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Turkey-Syria cease-fire in question after reported fighting, shelling
Just hours after President Trump announced a cease-fire between Turkish and Kurdish-led forces in Syria, journalists have reported continued fighting in the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn on Friday morning, while other areas have reported relative calm since the agreement.

Journalists from the Associated Press reported witnessing shelling and said they could see smoke billowing around the town, which sits along the border with Turkey. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported intermittent clashes in Ras al-Ayn, but calm elsewhere. Reuters also reported machine-gun fire and shelling that could be heard from a border town in Turkey near Ra al-Ayn.

On Thursday Trump declared it "a great day for civilization" after Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, following a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, announced terms of a cease-fire agreement that intended to end the violence between Turkey and the Kurds. At a Dallas campaign rally, he likened the Turkish offensive against the Syrian Kurds to a schoolyard fight and credited his "unconventional" approach for enabling the truce.

The deal was for a 120-hour cease-fire, during which time the Kurdish-led forces could pull back from the roughly 20-mile-wide safe zone on the Turkish-Syrian border. All Turkish military operations under the recent offensive known as Operation Peace Spring are to pause during that time, with the operation coming to an end upon completion of the Kurdish withdrawal, under terms of the deal.

Some U.S. military sources told Fox News they were skeptical of the cease-fire deal. Click here to read more on our top story.