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On February 15, the Turkish Army and its proxies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) opened a route between their positions in the districts of Rajo and Sheikh al-Hadid north and northwest of the city of Afrin. Turkish forces were able to open the route after they had captured the villages of Karri, Sharbanli, Shadia, Khara Suluq in Rajo and the village of Jaqla Tahtani in Sheikh al-Hadid, according to Syrian opposition sources.
The Turkish Army and the Turkish-backed FSA also captured the village of Durakili in the district of Bulbul north of Afrin and the village of Diwan al-Fawqani in the Jandaris district west of Afrin.
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According to the Turkish Anadolu Agency, the Turkish Army “neutralized” 43 fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin area during the last 24 hours.
The YPG repelled several attacks of the Turkish Army and the Turkish-backed FSA on its positions in the Rajo district, according to the Kurdish Hawar News Agency (ANHA). The source said that YPG fighters had killed two FSA fighters, injured five others and destroyed two armored vehicles of the Turkish Army.
YPG fighters also repelled an attack of the Turkish Army on their positions in the Jandaris district and destroyed four vehicles of the Turkish Army ,according to ANHA.
During the last two days, the Turkish Army and its proxies achieved significant advance in the northern and western parts of the Afrin area, while the YPG failed to organize an effective defense. Observers believe that failure of the YPG may make a political agreement between it and the Damascus government more likely.
Photos of the Turkish-backed FSA attack in Afrin area:
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Really nice job, Wahhabis from the Fake Syrian Army and Kurds die while Erdogan laughs and Assad grabs popcorn.
And Assad losing land :)
strange, because maps are all saying that Assad is the one who got back most of the land while ALL the others lost it, some more some less.
Agreed – SAA took back lower Aleppo Governate and shrunk militant controlled Idlib Governate so that it is now no bigger than the US occupied al-Tanf area. Big SAA gains for relatively little cost.
We will se if it gets back land from Erdo.
why, were the kurds planning to give it back to Assad?
No but for Assad would be more easily to crush Kurds than Turks.
it’s very arguable.
No, the kurds lose land and get kicked out of their homes and towns
Well actually Syrian land not held by Syrian Gov is 24.1% and that’s occupied by Foreign terrorist forces.
President Assad is playing his hand like a master. He’s allowing his enemies to wear themselves out, while he builds up his forces to eliminate the pockets they are hiding in. Smart. The Kurds will never get a state that borders Turkey and Presdident Assad knows that, so he Is watching the SDF get weaker and weaker. Soon, they will get so weak that the SAA will take the oil fields the SDF BARELY HOLDS now. The American daydream in Syria, much like it’s daydream in South Vietnam, is coming to a bloody and meaningless end.
It seems Assad has agreed to send his forces into Afrin in an agreement with the Kurds. To me this is silly but then he may have his reasons.
Syrians are going to die for the Kurds who are aligned to US?
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I fail to see the truth of the remark in the report that YPG fails to organize an effective defense. It seems to me that despite overwhelming odds, a lack of airforce, airdefense, no armour and no artillery, SDF is putting up an highly effective defense where, after a month of fighting, the invaders only hold some slices along the borders, not even 10% of the region, while inflictig heavy losses on the invaders.
Maybe the remark is the expression of a wish by the reporter?
What I’ve read elsewhere: The borderline to Turkey is mountainous and thus quite inaccessible and easy to defend. That’s why there was so few progress. But once they captured the mountains Afrin is basically a plane field and progress should be much faster now.
Well, I would agree with mijnheer dutchnational here. There is significant defense and, for what it’s worth, it’s effective in what it can do given the circumstances. Yes, the terrain favours guerilla warfare but the YPG is still in a very hard place. So it’s not lack of organisation, as the title wrongly seems to imply. Dutchnational probably correctly identifies a certain glee in the comment as if it said: “see, you Kurds, you will need a proper army after all… where are the Americans now?” Those puerilisms aside, the YPG’s hand seems to be forced, to either commit fully to the statement “we’re a part of Syria”, i.e. an integral part or, to keep the – not well hidden – seperationist card.
At any rate, it’s scary to see that the map calls territory recently conquered by Turkey (in pink) “liberated” (محررة). Liberated from whom? Syrian territory occupied by Syrian citizens? Or Ottoman territory occupied by Kurdish and Arab rebels?
Boy, the turks advance slowly on purpuse. If they want, they could take Afrin in 1 week.
The objective could very well be capitulation of the Kurds by the alliance in Afrin before the move East to the oil & gas fields and borders by the alliance as a whole.
Did you even actually read the article? ‘During the last two days, the Turkish Army and its proxies achieved significant advance in the northern and western parts of the Afrin area, while the YPG failed to organize an effective defense.’ It was after after listing prior YPG successes that the article very specifically refers to YPG defensive problems in the last two days. Way too emotional and reactive dude.
The Turks were sapping minefields on captured territory yesterday. They don’t seem too busy to me.
In addition to what you said stands the fact that in numbers the Turkish army is the second largest in the NATO. History showed as several times that the outcome of a war is unpredictable.
So airy arse is kicking the Kurdish out for the FSA .In a bloody vendetta.The Turkish have never been all there in the head.
Still the countryside. But damn that’s some fertile lands of Syria. No wonder Kurds don’t want to turn them over to Syria.
The problem of refugees will arise if and when Turky’s FSA/Al Nusra thugs ethnically cleanse Afrin. The FSA and Americans will be under great pressure to accept them and the refugees will feel betrayed by the Americans :)
The Turks don’t have the balls to continue. Once they get bloodied good they’ll retreat back to little Turk-land, where the Turks make up less than half of the population of their homeland. Most likely, they’ll go after Greece at some point, a sitting duck.