Click to see the full-size image
On March 24, fighters of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and locals uncovered a mass grave of FSA fighters near the town of Maydanki north of the city of Afrin, according to the Syrian pro-opposition news outlet Enab Baladi.
The source said that the grave had contained the bodies of more than 70 FSA fighters who had been killed by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) during a failed attack on the village of Ayn Daqnah, east of Afrin, in 2016.
Back then, the YPG paraded the bodies of the FSA fighters on trucks all around Afrin in an act, which was criticized by many Syrian activists.
Syrian opposition activists said that the bodies of the FSA fighters will be moved to a cemetery in the city of Azaz, east of the Afrin area, where they will be buried, in accordance with the Islamic Sharia law.
#بالصور نقل رفات جثامين مقاتلي #الجيش_السوري_الحر ممن قضوا في معركة #عين_دقنة 2016 إلى مقبرة مدينة #أعزاز بعد العثور عليهم في #مقبرة_جماعية شمال #عفرين.#نداء_سوريا #سوريا#غرد_بصورة #عفرين #مقبرة_جماعية #PKK#غصن_الزيتون #عفرين_الآن #عفرين_تحررت pic.twitter.com/zoQudnu2J5
— شبكة نداء سوريا (@NeSyria) March 24, 2018
Several Syrian Kurdish leaders believed that the failed FSA attack on Ayn Daqnah had been the main Turkish attack on Afrin area and had ignored several warnings that the attack had been only a “reconnaissance by fire”. These warning became a reality more than a year later when the Turkish Army launched its real military operation in Afrin on January 20.
