By Step Agency, click to see the full-size map
On February 11, the Turkish Army and its proxies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) captured the village of Hec Iskendere in the Jandaris district west of the city of Afrin, according to the Turkish Anadolu Agency. Syrian opposition sources also claimed that the Turkish-backed FSA had captured the village of Saranjik in the district of Rajo north of Afrin.
Anadolu Agency also reported that Turkish Air Force (TAF) warplanes had destroyed several positions of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) along the Turkish border with the Afrin area. The Turkish Army’s artillery also shelled the YPG’s positions west of Afrin, according to the media outlet.
From its side, the YPG said that its fighters had repelled the Turkish-backed FSA attack on the village of Saranjik after five hours of clashes inside and around it. According to the Kurdish Hawar News Agency (ANHA), YPG fighters killed 11 Turkish Army soldiers and 21 fighters of the Turkish-backed FSA during the last 24 hours. Turkish sources confirmed ANHA claims.
Furthermore, ANHA reported that YPG fighters had destroyed a battle tank, an armored vehicle and a bulldozer of the Turkish Army with ATGMs in the district of Bulbul north of Afrin.
Meanwhile, Syrian opposition and Turkish sources confirmed that the Turkish Army deployed several new armored units and hundreds of FSA fighters around the Afrin area. These reinforcements will likely take part in a new wave of attacks against Kurdish forces in Afrin.
As I said in an other article, Turkey will win in north Syria. kurds have taken Armenian, Arabs, … inAfrin region to create fictitious “Rojava”. kurds were greedy and now, they pay. They are not enough to resist Turkey military campaign.
And, Erdogan will surely flood this region with Syrian refugees in Turkey.
Then, he will start Mandjib campaign.
kurds have been very stupid to follow USA. They were very safe under Assad.
It is real shame because YPG could have prevented this Turkish invasion by agreeing to deal with SAA which the Russians proposed multiple times.
The best part will be when YPG will flee to Assad controlled areas. XD.
They would have dealt with Assad, but not as a surrender.
Exactly, but they became USA puppets, and that is the problem.
Why they didn’t?
They sold their soul unfortunately, to the Yanks for 20 pieces of silver.
Because they believe that Efrin canton wont be captured by Turkey and its proxies and secondly I think they thought there wont be Turkish invasion ,Russia will protect us forever – not really.And for last they dont want to give their territory to SAA.
that must be why i heard lately they are asking SAA to protect them lmao
The problem with the kurds is their stupidity. Honestly, they are one of the most hated group in Syria yet they capture a town and claim it “kurdish”. They should only have autonomy in areas where kurds are dominant, otherwise, arabs, armenians, assyrians and turks will rise against them.
Don’t fall into the trap of “good and kind” kurds. Kurds are not different than others. When they have the opportunity to grab land, they do.
Like I always say “never do to others what you don’t want others to do to you” even if it’s surely not good english. XD.
A better English version of what you say is ‘ It is wise to treat others as one would wish to be treated oneself ‘ Serious :)
There are many variations though.
Klugscheisser… ;-)
Dummkopf ….;-)
Assad that left the north east to islamists and IS? Never looked into archives, did you?
The map confused me, are you sure the “legend” is correct ?, or am I missing something again ?.
What’s strange about it?
Well in the key, Blue / light blue = the Turkish forces + allies which I cannot find and then you have and then you have Red = regime forces, which I assume is Assad’s forces and then Pink = Russian forces
UNLESS I HAVE BECOME COLOUR BLIND.
The Blue is mainly under the SDF bottom left and a small pockets left in SDF territory center left and both sides of the bottom left green bit just in SDF territory.
OK I am colour blind now. I see no blue at all.
You can only capture two little villages? Poor little turkish men. You must bring in your entire army!
in order to protect civilians, they have advanced carefully and slowly.
Being islamic?
why?
Cause you seem to like al this islamist faschists.
it doesn’t matter being islamic or not, prejudice is a mark of weakness, not of strength. The majority of Kurds are Sunni muslim also :)
Latest excuse by Erdogan for his army failing in Afrin :
As under islamic principles Turkish army has to advance slowly so civillians will not be harmed.
Let me rephrase that: because their army has become utter shite and their FSA mercenaries fickle they have advanced very carefully and slowly.
There, fixed it for ya. ;-)
ha ha ha lol!!!
Stupid MIT argument, do they realy pay for stuff like this?
The hardest parts are the moutain parts. And FSA is a very aggressive faction. SAA had very hard time with them north of Latakia in mountains and was able to barely advance.
Never noticed TFSA being very agressive. HTS and AAS to some extent, but only against SAA and NDF.
You are delusional. That’s the problem with people who don’t take facts as facts. FSA is a very aggressive faction and they will constantly attack as they are provided with weapons. And they don’t care to die because they are sunni extremists. And, nobody to save SDF in Afrin.
After Afrin, Erdogan will go for Mandjib.
TFSA only agressive amongst eachother. In 2017 more TFSA killed by their coterrorists than by SDF. And of course against kurdish people in the Azaz colony.
As for Afrin and Manbij, in 2017 over a thousand defected to SDF Manbij, many in december. All documented, just not in Turkey.
The only to defect to SDF is ISIS.
Whatever. No reasoning with the deaf.
ISIS, DSF and FSA are not needed as they are not syrians. ISIS must go back to israel. FSA must go back to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. kurds must go back to Iran and build a country there if they want a country. No need to take Syrians hostages.
“Serious” “facts”, Kurds are all from Iran? LOL And look what Erdo-Führer is up to: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-republic-is-continuation-of-ottomans-president-erdogan-127106
Turks are all from Mongolia. Acc to Serious, they can go back too.
All arabs can go to KSA etc.
Only the Syriacs will remain in Syria. And in all of Mesopotamia. Armenians will get the eastern part of Turkey, Greeks the western part and coastal areas and the Bretons will get central Anatolia (as being the last relatives of the Galatans).
All acc to the holy wisdom of Serious.
Afrin will take much more time than the expected 3 months. The turks are no soldiers in general and those who are sent to fight are conscripts missing the warmness under the skirt of their mothers. And these FSA-slaves won`t beat the kurds, they are a good cannon fodder. The Afrin-Kurds will loose one day but not the next time. They had the chanc3e to work together with Syria but they denied. So let them cook their own eggs.
Ottoman advance is glacial, but more ATGMs and Manpads are needed to send them back to their Sultan with tails between their devil’s legs!
this is the 3rd or 4th time the TAF have claimed to have taken Saranjik, and the fight around Bulbil is in its 3rd week. The TAF and FSA have made no progress in 3 weeks of fighting. FIASCOE has a new meaning for the TAF, F–ked In Afrin Situation Completely Opposite Expectations
Now the successful strike on a headquarter in Azaz. Likely many of the app 20 killed were officers.
More strikes on the Azaz colony to be expected?
I am wondering why the SAA just doesn’t use this opportunity to attack the Azaz colony ? Its a serious question worth asking. Not a SAA fan by any stretch of the Imagination, but it seems they are missing and opportunity to counter Erdogan’s expansion and at least for the time being the SAA is not attacking the SDF/YPG/YPJ in that area
SAA has a problem there. They hardly have any connecting lines to the Azaz colony. Only around Al Bab are there lines where they can deploy.
They could try to take Al Bab. It would bring a big hole in the lines of the colony. It would also mean a direct controntation with Turkey.
I appreciate what you say; however, conflict with Turkey’ s proxies is already ongoing and conflict with Erdogan’s Turkey seems unavoidable
Old political maxim – when your current political opponents, in this case FSA and YPG, are fighting each other don’t intervene and alter the equation – stand back and let them damage each other.
Assad must join Erdogan and start attacking SDF south to grab some land before Erdogan take everything. FSA will be a problem after.
Turkey is an invader country and must go home. Turkey is there to protect its terrorists.
YPG also is invader.
You know the difference between stupid and serious? Doesn´t seems so. Efrin has a majority kurdish population for some hundered years. Assad should wipe Idlib, that´s enogh to do for the SAA. Everything else can be NEGOTIATED later. ;-)
The heading says : two villages captured. In the report it says two attacked. only one captured.
Sometimes consistency matters.
The Turkish Army is much less efficient than it should be – with the given equipment and air superiority, but slowly they are encircling Afrin. The YPG will not stop them, as Erdogan has a lot of reserves. So the kurds may consider to surrender to Assad before completely losing Afrin to the turks. I presume that in such case Russia would be considering to negotiate a cease fire with Erdogan.
I think the progress is ok for the estimatet 3 months for the operation
Good luck dealing with turkey SAA
DO NOT designate the area the legitimate Syrian government controls as REGIME CONTROL; unless you say the Same for the US Regime and the Regime in control of Tel Aviv.
DO NOT disrespect the elected Government headed by Bashar Al Assad as a REGIME .
Get This thru your Thick Heads