‘Relentless’ shelling as Turkey intensifies Afrin push

The Turkish military has intensified an offensive in opposition to Syrian Kurdish positions within the enclave of Afrin, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated there may presumably well be no « stepping serve » in Ankara’s operation, now in its 0.33 day.

Anadolu, Turkey’s mumble-flee news agency, reported on Monday that Turkish forces persisted to shell Kurdish-held areas in northwestern Syria in strengthen of Free Syrian Navy (FSA) forces, who’re on the ground in Afrin combating alongside Turkish troops. 

Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, reporting from the Turkish-Syrian border discontinuance to Afrin, stated that « relentless, heavy shelling and artillery fire » may presumably also be heard kilometres far from the centre of the operation. 

Turkish jets moreover hit targets at Afrin’s Bursaya Mountain, which holds « strategic importance » for the Kurdish combatants, Anadolu stated.

Turkey claims Kurdish forces are the utilize of Bursaya to condo civilians within the Turkish province of Kilis.

Flooring forces moreover evolved east of Afrin, in Syria’s Azaz district, in line with Anadolu.

In the intervening time, YPG combatants claimed they had been ready to repel the advance of Ankara-backed FSA forces and Turkish troops in four villages in two districts of Afrin.

Ankara says its « Olive Branch » operation is geared in direction of ousting the Kurdish Folk’s Protection Devices (YPG), which it brands as « terrorists », and build a so-called « protected zone » 30km deep to guard its border.

France has called for a UN Security Council assembly later on Monday to communicate about traits in flashpoint areas in conflict-torn Syria, in conjunction with the Turkish operation.

Earlier on Monday, Erdogan stated the Turkish military used to be obvious to press forward with its push, pronouncing that « there is no longer any stepping serve from Afrin ». 

Turkey is attempting to build a 30-km ‘protected zone’ within Syria to guard its hang border [Anadolu]

Afrin residents instructed Al Jazeera’s Dekker that while some females and younger of us had fled to Aleppo, many others remained holed up within the town.

On Sunday, the YPG reported that six civilians and three combatants had been killed. 

On the Turkish facet, one person used to be reportedly killed and two others injured within the province of Hatay on Monday, following a negative-border YPG assault, in line with Anadolu.

A soldier used to be moreover reportedly injured, nonetheless there had been no reviews of any Turkish defense pressure fatalities.    

In the intervening time, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) stated on Monday it used to be studying the doable for sending reinforcements to the Afrin region to fight the Turkish and FSA forces.

« We are within the framework of getting a inspect on the doable for sending extra defense pressure forces to Afrin, » SDF spokesman Kino Gabriel instructed journalists, even as he urged Turkey to terminate the operation.

The SDF is a multi-ethnic nonetheless predominantly Kurdish alliance of armed groups in Syria, and used to be a severe piece within the fight in opposition to the Islamic Impart of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, moreover called ISIS) community. 

Turkey considers Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Occasion (PYD) and its armed cruise, the YPG, « terrorist groups » with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Occasion (PKK), which has waged a a long time-long fight inner Turkey.

Erdogan has previously stated that each person Kurdish armed groups « are the total the same » and that altering their names « doesn’t alternate the reality that they’re fear organisations ».