The Afrin Liberation Forces (ALF) announced on April 2 that its units had carried out a series of attacks on Turkish-backed militants in northern Aleppo.
In the first attack, which took place on March 26, ALF fighters stormed a position of Turkish forces in the town of Omra in the district Sherawa in the southern part of occupied Afrin. Three militants were killed in the raid.
On April 1, the Krudish group’s cells struck an SUV carrying a militant commander known as Abu Khalid in the town of Burj Haidar in Sherawa with an improvised explosive device (IED). The commander and three of his guards were killed. A fourth militant was also injured.
On the same day, ALF operatives detonated a second IED near a headquarters of Turkish forces in the al-Mahmudiyah neighborhood in Afrin city. The attack resulted in material losses only.
The ALF is launching its attacks from a strip of land in southern Afrin jointly controlled by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the Kurdish People’s Liberation Units (YPG). The group also has a network of cells within Afrin.
The Turkish military is doing nothing to address the threat of the ALF, likely because most of the group’s operations are targeting its expendable proxies.
The Kurds should put in their lot with the SAA and make a concerted effort. They will have the area cleared in no time. President Assad is a just man and may forgive the Kurds for using US/nato chaos to carve off a slice of Syria for themselves and steal lots of oil for more weapons. There is no chance for a Kurdish homeland either in Syria or Turkey. However, President Assad remains their best chance to retain some autonomy, as it was before the conflict broke out. The longer the Kurds leave it, the less they will have to negotiate with.
The Russians are also present here, that was part of the Russian Turkish MOU concerning this area, the Russians were going to control and patrol here, so the SAA are not the main force controlling this area, it’s the Russians. Come on SF, you didn’t even mention that, why not, is it a secret all of a sudden? The ALF haven’t stopped operations since january 2019 when they first started their offensive, and they haven’t had one break since then, just full on attacks with no respite, so everytime they announce a new operation I just laugh, because I know they’ve never ever stopped. In fact if you do some research you’ll find that everytime the SAA has been forced to endure a ceasefire, the ALF ramp up their attacks against the Turks to compensate for the lull in SAA activity, and they’ve been doing that since jan 2019.