PHOTO: A Turkish tank with the rebel offensive in northern Syria

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UPDATE 1700 GMT: Pro-rebel activists report further advances of the Turkish-supported rebel force, which has now reached and crossed the Sajur River as it moves towards the SDF-held city of Manbij:

Rebels at the Sajur River:

REBELS SAJUR RIVER 28-08-16

UPDATE 1200 GMT: Pro-rebel activists are claiming the capture of seven SDF-held villages by Turkish-supported rebel forces:

Fighters replace the SDF flag with a Syrian revolutionary flag at Syriatel hill, overlooking the village of Amarinah:

Activists also say that two more ISIS-held villages between Jarablus and al-Rai have been taken.

UPDATE 0900 GMT: Reports are circulating that 19 Kurdish-led SDF fighters and 28 civilians have been killed in a Turkish airstrike on a house south of Jarablus.

Another 59 civilians were wounded.

Pro-rebel outlets claimed that the house was being used as a firing position. They said that 13 SDF troops died, as well as civilians who were gathered in the house as shields for the troops.

Kurdish outlets claimed a “massacre” of 20 civilians in the village of Bir al-Kûsa, 13 kms (8 miles) from Jarablus.

The Turkish daily Daily Sabah, close to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is claiming the deaths of 25 “terrorists”, with five buildings destroyed, and not reporting any civilian casualties.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Fighting expanded in northern Syria between Turkish-supported rebels and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Saturday, with SDF fighters killed and captured and Turkey suffering the first casualties of its intervention.

Rebels clashed with units of the SDF near Jarablus, taking two villages to the southwest. Photographs showed the capture of two SDF troops, while pro-rebel outlets said several SDF soldiers were killed

One Turkish soldier died and three were injured when a rocket hit a Turkish tank in Jarablus. Claimed video circulated by a pro-Kurdish activist:

The Turkish intervention began last Wednesday, as tanks, artillery, and special forces joined rebels who crossed into Syria. Within hours, the force occupied the border town of Jarablus, as the Islamic State withdrew.

Rebels took at least five more ISIS-held villages to the west of Jarablus on Saturday.

Turkish officials said two F-16 jets bombed a site controlled by the Kurdish YPG, the militia which leads the SDF. The sources also said the jets hit six Islamic State targets.

The SDF’s Jarablus Military Council said the Turkish warplanes hit the village of Amarinah south of Jarablus, where there have been clashes since last Thursday. It said there were civilian casualties and called the attack “a dangerous escalation”.

JARABLUS 27-08-16

After the fall of Jarablus, both Turkish and American officials said the YPG would withdraw east of the Euphrates. However, clashes soon began across northern Syria, with the SDF setting up military councils in both Jarablus and Manbij, the ISIS-held city that they captured last month.

The Manbij Military Council promised on Saturday that it will support the Jarablus Military Council in resisting Ankara and the rebels:

Turkey has dangerously escalated its attacks by exploiting the silence of the world and international and regional temporary consensus for its blatant interference in Jarablus in order to obstruct the war on terror. Turkey has resorted to the policy of secret deals with terrorists to enter Jarablus without a fight.

Free Syrian Army fighters west of Jarablus:

The SDF was created last autumn — with US weapons and special forces — to battle the Islamic State in northeast Syria. By December, it had crossed west of the Euphrates River, Turkey’s “red line” for Kurdish-controlled territory.

After months of US-Turkish negotiations, an offensive to take Manbij began in early May. However, Ankara remains hostile to the YPG and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), believing they are connected with the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK.

Regime Tries Again to Storm Artillery Base on SW Aleppo Front

Pro-Assad forces are trying yet again to recapture part of the artillery base, lost to rebels in early August, on the front southwest of Aleppo city.

The latest assault reportedly has the largest concentration of armor in a series of attacks, which have failed so far with heavy casualties.

Pro-rebel activists claim that some of the armored vehicles have already been struck.

The artillery base was the regime’s third-largest in the country. It was lost as the rebel bloc Jaish al-Fatah opened a route to break the pro-Assad siege on opposition districts of Aleppo.

Video: Treating Casualties of Pro-Regime Airstrikes on Rastan in Homs Province

Treatment of victims of Russian-regime airstrikes on Rastan in northern Homs Province on Sunday:

Another graphic video has been posted of a woman crushed by falling masonry from the roof of her home.

Footage of destruction:

Rebels Set Out Proposal for Aid to Aleppo

After meetings with UN officials, rebels have set out the terms of their proposal for provision of humanitarian assistance to Aleppo city.

The rebels emphasized that they are “fully ready to cooperate” but said that there must be a ceasefire accepted by all parties.

Restating their position, they said that a Russian proposal to send in aid via the al-Castelo road to the north of the city is insufficient, as it covers only one opposition-held district in Aleppo: “The choice of the al-Castelo road…as the only route to use in the delivery of aid was surprising and disappointing.”

The rebels said that the alternative of the Ramouseh route from the southwest into Aleppo should be used to ensure that neither side has a political or military advantage.

Pro-Assad forces, enabled by Russian airstrikes, established control over the al-Castelo road in early July. Rebels broke the siege of Aleppo by advancing in the Ramouseh area a month later.

Media Activist Killed by Regime Missile on Aleppo

Media activist Taha al-Helo was killed on Saturday by a regime missile fired on the Darat Izza section of Aleppo city:

AL HELO

Pro-Assad airstrikes have slain scores of civilians this weekend in opposition areas of Aleppo. An attack on a funeral in the Ma’adi district on Saturday killed at least 25 people and wounded 30, and there were more victims, including children, in attacks on Bab al-Nairab.

See Syria Daily, August 27: Reports — 25 Killed in Regime Attack on Funeral in Aleppo

Al-Wa’er in Homs: “Don’t Let Us Become Another Darayya”

Officials in al-Wa’er, the last opposition-held district in Homs city, have appealed to the international community for an end to regime attacks seeking capitulation and forced removal of residents.

The local council addressed UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Saturday, two days after another opposition-controlled area — the Damascus suburb of Darayya — finally surrendered after a 45-month siege and bombardment, with residents moved to nearby regime-held towns and rebels and their families taken to Idlib Province in northwest Syria.

The council noted that the regular bombing of al-Wa’er was stepped up last week, as the regime “spared no weapon” in its airstrikes. It reminded de Mistura that, despite a December 2015 truce, the Syrian military has imposed a total siege since March.

The Local Coordination Committees said there have been 18 strikes so far on Sunday.

Al-Wa’er has been cut off and bombed since 2013, when almost the rest of Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, fell to the regime.

Graphic video on Saturday showed a child suffering from burns caused by an incendiary weapon.

See Video: The Child Burned by a “Napalm Bomb” on Besieged District in Homs City

Bombing of al-Wa’er: