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Turkish forces capture Afrin

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Sunday morning that the Turkish army and its Syrian rebel allies had captured the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria, two months after launching a ground offensive in Northern Syria.

“Units of the Free Syrian Army, which are backed by Turkish armed forces, took control of the centre of Afrin this morning at 8.30am (0530 GMT),” said Erdoğan, who addressed the nation live from a ceremony to commemorate the battle of the Dardanelles during the First World War. “Many of the terrorists had turned tail and run away already,” he added. “In Afrin’s centre, it is no longer the rags of the terror organisation that are waving but rather the symbols of peace and security.” He also vowed that Turkey would take “the necessary steps to rebuild Afrin”.

According to the Turkish military, “search operations to locate mines and other explosives are underway”. The advancing troops faced little resistance from the Kurdish militia in the Afrin enclave, known as the People’s Defense Units (YPG), which retreated and vowed to turn to guerrilla tactics.

The YPG said: “We would like to declare that our war against the Turkish occupation and the Takfiri forces called the Free [Syrian] Army has entered a new stage, the transition from direct confrontation war to hit-and-run tactics. Our forces are everywhere in Afrin. These forces will strike the positions of the Turkish aggression and its mercenaries at every opportunity.” Turkey views the YPG as terrorists linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency within Turkey’s borders.

The Turkish army posted a video on social media showing a soldier holding a Turkish flag and a man waving the Syrian opposition flag on the balcony of the parliament building in the centre of Afrin on Sunday. There have been reports of widespread looting by rebels in the city.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 200,000 civilians have fled the Afrin region in recent days amid heavy airstrikes. The Turkish army’s general staff said in a statement that 3,603 Kurdish fighters and 46 Turkish soldiers had died since the start of its operation in northern Syria.