Turkish jets resume strikes against Kurdish canton of Afrin
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Turkish war planes resumed targeting Kurdish-controlled Afrin on Friday after pausing for much of this week.
Turkish General Staff confirmed overnight airstrikes to state-run Anadolu Agency, saying its jets bombed a total of 19 targets, including shelters, ammunition depots, and gun positions belonging to "terror" organizations.
Artillery shelling — by both the Turkish military and its FSA proxies, continued this week, despite a pause by Turkey's air forces.
The YPG has controlled the Kurdish canton in Syria. On Friday they posted video that showed a crater near a cemetery. In the video, it says "Martyr Seydo cemetery is where YPG's fallen fighters rest.
"Most of them [being] martyred in the anti-IS campaign, in different parts of northern Syria," it added.
There had been unverified reports in Turkish media of a Russian-imposed no-fly-zone over Afrin this week.
Russia, as the Syrian regime's primary backer, recently has controlled air space in northwestern Syria.
Turkey’s army, ranked the fourth strongest within NATO by Global Fire Power, is backing elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in its operation on the canton of the self-autonomous Rojava region that is nearly encircled by Turkey or its proxies and is currently home to 323,000 people, according to UN figures. Of them, 192,000 are in need of humanitarian aid and 125,000 are IDPs.
At least 140 civilians have been killed, according to Afrin health officials.
Turkish General Staff confirmed overnight airstrikes to state-run Anadolu Agency, saying its jets bombed a total of 19 targets, including shelters, ammunition depots, and gun positions belonging to "terror" organizations.
Artillery shelling — by both the Turkish military and its FSA proxies, continued this week, despite a pause by Turkey's air forces.
The YPG has controlled the Kurdish canton in Syria. On Friday they posted video that showed a crater near a cemetery. In the video, it says "Martyr Seydo cemetery is where YPG's fallen fighters rest.
"Most of them [being] martyred in the anti-IS campaign, in different parts of northern Syria," it added.
There had been unverified reports in Turkish media of a Russian-imposed no-fly-zone over Afrin this week.
Russia, as the Syrian regime's primary backer, recently has controlled air space in northwestern Syria.
Turkey’s army, ranked the fourth strongest within NATO by Global Fire Power, is backing elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in its operation on the canton of the self-autonomous Rojava region that is nearly encircled by Turkey or its proxies and is currently home to 323,000 people, according to UN figures. Of them, 192,000 are in need of humanitarian aid and 125,000 are IDPs.
At least 140 civilians have been killed, according to Afrin health officials.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented that 70 civilians have been killed in the launch of the assault on January 20.