Illustrative image, fighters of the Afrin Liberation Forces. Via the Hawar News Agency (ANHA).
On December 28, the Afrin Liberation Forces (ALF) claimed responsibility for two recent attacks that targeted the Turkish military and its proxies in the northern Aleppo countryside.
In a statement, the Kurdish guerilla group said that its fighters were behind the December 22 indirect fire attack that hit a base of the Turkish military near the town of Dabiq. Two Turkish service members were allegedly wounded as a result of the attack.
The group also claimed responsibility for a coordinated night attack that targeted four positions of Turkish-backed militants in Shirawa district in the southern part of the Kurdish area of Afrin. According to the group’s claims, at least 12 militants were killed in the attack.
Footage documenting the attack as well as some of the weapons and equipment captured from the positions was released by the group.
The ALF, which emerged in the northern Aleppo countryside after the Turkish occupation of Afrin in 2018, is said to be a proxy of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that is backed by the United States. The shadowy group stepped up its attacks in the last few months in what appears to be a response to repeated Turkish drone and artillery strikes on SDF-held areas in northern and eastern Syria.
Turkey escalated its strikes on the northern and eastern regions after the November 13 Istanbul bombing that was blamed on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the People’s Protection Unit, the core faction of the SDF. Ankara even threatened the group with a new ground invasion. However, both the U.S. and Russia voiced their objection.
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