BICOM

Turkey launched a ground operation into northern Syria yesterday as part of a major offensive against Kurdish militias in Afrin, which it regards as terrorists.

The ground operation began on the second day of a military offensive called Operation Olive Branch. Since Saturday afternoon, dozens of Turkish airstrikes have hit over 150 targets in Afrin.

The Kurdish group targeted, known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), said it repelled Turkish troops and pro-Turkey rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the area and retaliated with rocket fire directed at the Turkish province of Kilis across the border.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was launching the military campaign to clear out the YPG and its political arm, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), from the district. Turkey regards the YPG as part of the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a designated terror group by the US and EU. There are an estimated 600,000 civilians in Afrin, and Turkey says there may be up to 10,000 YPG fighters.

Erdogan said in a speech in the western city of Bursa on Sunday: “We are determinedly taking steps against the terrorist organisation and we will continue. It is out of the question to make concessions on this.” He also said that the Afrin operation will be followed by an offensive against Manbij, another Kurdish stronghold on the western bank of the Euphrates River, where a 30,000-strong US-trained border force from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) operate and is dominated by YPG fighters.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara that the plan is to create a buffer zone along the border, extending 30 km into Syrian territory. The Turkish government has threatened to do since it intervened in the Syrian civil war in August 2016 to limit Kurdish expansion west of the Euphrates River.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US “is very concerned” about the situation in northwest Syria. “We urge Turkey to show restraint and ensure its military operations remain limited in scope and duration and scrupulous to avoid civilian casualties,” Nauert reaffirmed.

The YPG said that the “Turkish army wants through these military operations to inspire fear among civilians to force them from their lands and lay the ground for occupying the city,” adding that it held both Ankara and Moscow accountable for the “massacres that will be committed in Afrin”.