Mount Barṣa ( ar, جبل برصة ǧabal Barṣa , Barṣa being a shortening of Barṣāyā) is a mountain in

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of t ...

in northern Syria. The mountain is located between

Azaz District Azaz District ( ar, منطقة أعزاز, manṭiqat A'zāz) is a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Azaz. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 251,769. The district lie ...

and

Afrin District Afrin District ( ar, منطقة عفرين, manṭiqat Afrīn) is a district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The administrative centre is the city of Afrin. At the 2004 census, the district had a population of 172,095. Also available i ...

Borders and description

The mountain is located between the Aʻzāz plain and the valley of River ʻIfrīn from east and west, respectively. To the south lie

Mount Simeon Mount Simeon or Mount Simon ( ar, جبل سمعان Jabal Simʻān ), also called Mount Laylūn ( ar, جبل ليلون, is a highland region in Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The mountain is located in the Mount Simeon and Aʻzāz distr ...

, and to the north the plain of

Kilis Kilis is a city in south-central Turkey, near the border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province. History Although there aren't any definite information related to its foundation, today's Kilis mainly developed and became ...

where the Akpınar River, one of the headwaters of

Quweiq The Queiq (Modern Standard Arabic: , ''Quwayq'', ; northern Syrian Arabic: ''ʾWēʾ'', ), with many variant spellings, known in antiquity as the Belus ( grc-gre, Βήλος, ''Bēlos''), Chalos and also known in English as the Aleppo Rive ...

, rises. The height of Mount Barṣa is 848m. The mountain is drained by an intermittent river called Aʻzāz River, which drains into the Quweiq and forms the northern boundary of

Syrian Civil War

The Syrian government retreated from the area in spring 2012 as per an agreement with the PYD, and the entire territory of Afrin saw almost no conflict for the next five years of the war. The mountain was however the site of fierce fighting between Turkish troops and Kurdish militants during the

Turkish military operation in Afrin Operation Olive Branch ( tr, Zeytin Dalı Harekâtı) was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish Armed Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) in the majority-Kurdish Afrin District of northwest Syria, against the People's Pro ...

in late January 2018, where it was captured by Turkish troops. The area was heavily fortified with concrete bunkers, trenches and tunnels constructed by the defending militants.

References

Aleppo Aleppo Governorate Barsa {{AleppoSY-geo-stub