At least 18 civilians have been killed in the Turkish military campaign against Syria’s Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria, a monitor group has reported.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred in Afrin and surrounding villages as Turkey started its offensive on Saturday by airstrikes and shelling and commenced its ground incursion on Sunday to drive out the Kurdish forces from border areas between Syria and Turkey, Xinhua reported.
Meanwhile, Kurdish activists said Intense battles raged between the YPG and the Turkish army on the outskirts of the Adama town in the countryside of Afrin after the attempt of the Turkish army to advance into the town.
For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the “Turkish aggression on Afrin cannot be separated from the Turkish policies undertaken since the first day of the Syrian crisis to support terrorism and the terrorist groups in Syria.”
Earlier, Ankara said it had begun the ground incursion into Afrin a day after intense shelling and airstrikes that marked the beginning of the Turkish campaign against the Kurdish fighters in Syria.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Sunday that the military campaign in Afrin would be over in a “short time,” describing the military campaign as a “national struggle.”
Turkey’s military operation in Afrin aims to deal a strong blow to the Kurdish fighters and weaken their growing influence in northern Syria near Turkey.
Source: IANS