Turkish troops ‘take villages’ in Syria as offensive to oust Kurdish fighters continues
TURKISH forces seized control of a number of villages in north-western Syria today in an ongoing offensive to oust Kurdish fighters. Troops, assisted by rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) crossed into northern Syria to push out the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), claimed Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu.
It was reported they captured a large area of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave along Turkey’s southern border. Turkey’s military also claimed to have hit 45 targets on Sunday.
It earlier reported air strikes had taken out 153 Kurdish militant targets. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would not “step back” from the assault on the YPG which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group.
He said: “We are determined, Afrin will be sorted out.” Mr Erdogan has vowed to crush the YPG “very quickly” but the US is urging Turkish “restraint” in order to avoid civilian casualties.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, claimed that the YPG had retaken two villages after heavy fighting.
Kurdish rockets also hit the Turkish border towns of Kilis and Reyhanli at the weekend, with casualties reported.
There were further casualties in a rocket attack on an FSA camp in Hatay province today.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said “the brutal Turkish aggression” on Afrin was part of Ankara’s policy of “support for terrorism” in Syria.