Nine Turkish service members were killed and fourteen others were injured in a series of attacks in the southern part of the Syrian occupied area of Afrin on April 30, the Afrin Liberation Forces (ALF) claimed in a new official statement.
“Our fighters continue to strike Turkish terror army and its Jihadi proxies with various types of operations in occupied Afrin and its vicinity,” the Kurdish guerrilla group said in its statement, that was released on May 1.
The Turkish soldiers were supposedly killed when Kurdish fighters destroyed two BMC Kirpi Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and a 4×4 truck of the Turkish military in the vicinity of the town of Qatamah. The vehicles were destroyed with anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).
Kurdish fighters also ambushed a unit of the Turkish military near the same village on the same day. As a result of the ambush, six Turkish soldiers were injured, according to the ALF’s claims.
The Kurdish group’s claims are yet to be confirmed. The Turkish military, which usually announces his loses without any delay, has not commented on these claims so far.
Earlier this year, the ALF begin to use ATGMs in its operations against the Turkish military in Afrin. This allowed the Kurdish group to target Turkish troops with high-accuracy from a safe distance.
Well Done Kurds ! As always it is the brave Kurds fighting the Turko-isis terrorists in Syria. More of the same please and more often ! Kick the invading Mongol’s @$$es out of Syria !
Did they just say the Turks are usually forthcoming with accurate casualty figures, yet they only have one confirmed death this year according to their accounts [wiki], I think it’s most likely closer to a hundred deaths this year so far. Every few days we hear of YPG attacks against the Turks and their proxies resulting in deaths, even if one in ten are Turks and not just their proxies dying, the Turks casualty rates must be going up this year like never before, especially since currently there’s a hundred times as many attacks happening this year as there have been previous years. I wonder what Erdogan says to Putin about the Kurds.
The US is arming the Kurds with manpads and other lethal weapons to keep the conflict going and weakening all sides. The Turks have lost over a thousand dead and wounded since Erdogan annexed northern Syria to buffer the Salafist terrorists. It is a matter of time before Syrian military also gets involved despite Russia’s ill-advised deals with Turkey.
If Trumps arming the Kurds with MANPADS that’s great, and I’m sure it’s not for the purposes of weakening or fracturing any sort of cooperation the Kurds have with the Syrian government, they’ll most likely be used to stop Turkish aircraft blowing the Kurds to bits if the Turks ever feel like trying, and they haven’t really so far, so the MANPADS might already be acting as a deterrent. Up until the start if the year it was about 100 confirmed Turkish deaths and probably 3 times as many wounded, so I’m not going to dispute your assertion that it’s up to a thousand now, with all the YPG attacks over the last 4 months it’s quite possible it’s even higher than a 1000. The fact Turkey isn’t releasing new up to date casualty figures is a good sign they’ve gone through the roof. “Russia’s ill-advised deals with Turkey”. I used to think that too until a month ago, now I think the deals he does with Erdogan actually assist Putin’s motives only, I was going to say the most, but I no longer think that’s accurate either. Putin’s real objectives mean that the seemingly bad deals he does with Erdogan actually suite him and Russia in the long run, and actually harm Erdogan’s ambitions and standing in the long run, even if they do seem to suite Erdogan short term, and yes they nearly always hurt Assad in the process too, [and also confuse the rest of us big time]. I think Putin’s very happy to have the stalemate in Syria continue, I no longer blame Erdogan, the US deep state, or Israel anymore, Putin’s the man running the whole damn show now, he has to be the one responsible, and I think he has at least 2 good reasons not to end the war just yet.