ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — At least 36 pro-regime fighters deployed to the northwest Syrian canton of Afrin to support Kurdish militias were killed on Saturday in fresh Turkish airstrikes, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Turkish strikes on the Kafr Janna area were the third such attack in less than 48 hours on forces loyal to the government of Bashar al-Assad operating in Afrin.
The monitor said 14 pro-government fighters were killed on Thursday and another four on Friday in separate Turkish airstrikes.
Mohammed Faraj, a commander of pro-Syrian government forces in Afrin, said on Friday that 10 of their militants were killed and eight wounded as a result of Turkish airstrikes.
“In the night before yesterday, the Turkish air force bombed our positions in the village of Chama, which resulted in the martyrdom of 10 of our soldiers and 8 wounded. In the town of Kafr Zafra in the area of Jandaris, one of our fighters was martyred by Turkish air strikes targeting one of our points in the village,” said Faraj in an interview with ANHA, a media outlet close to the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG).
Turkey has not denied the incident. The YPG confirmed the deaths to ANHA on Saturday.
Faraj accused Turkey of not “complying with the truce … by shelling villages and civilians indiscriminately.”
The UN Security Council passed a 30-day humanitarian ceasefire resolution last week. Kurdish groups also have called on the UN to apply a monitoring mechanism.
The commander called on “the Syrian leadership and the state of Russia to see these violations and to stop these attacks and the bombing targeting the region, especially the civilians.”
Turkey denies targeting civilians, but has said it will target those who side with the YPG.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented the deaths 149 civilians through Friday.
The Turkish army and its Free Syrian Army proxies launched the Operation Olive Branch on January 20, with the stated aim of clearing its borders from “terrorists” and prevent a “terror corridor” on its border.
Ankara considers the YPG and its affiliates to be the Syrian extension of the PKK, a banned political party in Turkey which is terror-listed. The Syrian YPG deny the charge and claim to be a separate group.
Pro-Syrian regime forces first arrived in Afrin on February 20 and were welcomed to defend international borders.
Updated at 7:00PM
