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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Turkey shells pro-regime forces in Afrin

By AFP
February 21, 2018

AFRIN, Syria: Turkey fired at Syrian pro-regime forces as they entered on Tuesday the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin, Syrian state media said.

The shelling marks a major escalation in the month-old assault Turkey and allied rebels are waging on Afrin. "Turkish regime forces targeted the locations of popular forces with artillery fire as they arrived to the Afrin region," state news agency SANA reported.

Turkey said they it fired "warning shots" at Syria pro-regime forces in Afrin. "Pro-regime terrorist groups that are trying to advance towards Afrin retreated to about 10-km from the town because of the warning shots," Turkish state news agency Anadolu said.

Hundreds of pro-government fighters arrived on Tuesday afternoon to Afrin, to take a stand against a Turkish-led offensive on the region. Their deployment marks the first time since 2012 that regime forces take up positions in the area, which is held by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

In a statement on Tuesday, YPG spokesman Nuri Mahmud said the Kurdish forces had called on the Damascus government to help fend off Turkey’s assault. "The Syrian government responded to the invitation, answered the call of duty and sent military units today, February 20, to take up positions on the borders, and participate in defending the territorial unity of Syria and its borders," the statement said.

AFP correspondents said the forces did not appear to have entered Afrin city itself. The YPG has controlled Afrin since Syrian government forces withdrew from Kurdish-majority areas in the country’s north in 2012.

But on Monday, Syria’s state media said that pro-Damascus forces would head to Afrin to "join the resistance against the Turkish aggression". "This comes in the framework of supporting residents and defending the territorial unity and sovereignty of Syria," news agency SANA said.

The Afrin region lies in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo. An AFP correspondent in government-controlled Aleppo city told AFP that the convoy, made up of pick-up trucks carrying armed men, had left earlier Tuesday en route to Afrin.

Meanwhile, Syria’s main opposition group on Tuesday condemned a government offensive in Eastern Ghouta as a "bloodbath" and a "war crime", saying it may pull out of UN-backed peace talks in protest.

Three days of air strikes, rockets and artillery fire have left nearly 200 civilians dead in the rebel-held enclave near Damascus, with 13 children killed on Tuesday morning alone, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Nasr al-Hariri, president of the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) said it was clear the Damascus government had "zero interest to engage" in dialogue. "The Syrian regime with the direct support of Russia and Iran have turned Ghouta into a bloodbath of innocent women and children," Hariri told reporters in Brussels after talks with EU officials.

"What’s happening in Ghouta is a war crime. International law is very clear on the matter but in Syria the implementation of international law doesn’t exist." The European Union, which is hosting a conference on Syria in Brussels next month, says the near seven-year war can only be resolved through negotiations.

Brussels wants to see fresh impetus for UN-led talks in Geneva, which have made scant progress in eight rounds. Hariri said the Syrian opposition had done its best to make progress in talks, but when asked if he would consider withdrawing in protest at the latest violence, he warned: "We are studying all the options".

"Just see what they are doing in Ghouta. We are therefore studying the feasibility of the current process as we seek to end the suffering of our people," he added. The United Nations has warned the situation in Ghouta is "spiralling out of control" and has repeatedly called for a month-long ceasefire across Syria’s front lines, from Eastern Ghouta to the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in the northwest, which Turkey threatened on Tuesday to lay siege to in the coming days.