ANSD : Pro-regime units retreat in Afrin; Ghouta death toll soars

SAT 20 - 4 - 2024

Date: Feb 21, 2018
Source: The Daily Star

Pro-regime units retreat in Afrin; Ghouta death toll soars

_{Gemma Fox| The Daily Star}
BEIRUT: Pro-regime units were reportedly forced to retreat when they came under Turkish fire after entering Syria’s Afrin, in an escalation of tensions between Ankara and Damascus. Meanwhile, activists said at least 100 people were killed in Eastern Ghouta Tuesday by Syrian and Russian airstrikes, bring the death toll over 48 hours to 250 – the highest since 2013.

Speaking at a joint news conference with his Macedonian counterpart, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that pro-regime forces “were forced to turn back” in Afrin following Turkish artillery fire, AP reported.

He also warned against such forces taking another “wrongful step,” saying that those who did would “pay a high price.”

Footage from Kurdistan24TV appeared to show a number of pro-regime convoys turning back.

Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebel group commander Lt. Col. Abu Riyad warned that they would “fight and defeat” the Iran-backed forces, in comments to The Daily Star.

Earlier in the day, state-owned SANA reported that “popular forces” had arrived in Afrin to support locals against a Turkish “war of aggression,” while Hezbollah’s War Media Center published videos of dozens of convoys entering the area.

SANA said the forces had entered north of Nubl – approximately 30 kilometers south of Afrin city – via the Ziyara crossing.

A statement from the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, seen by The Daily Star, said that the Syrian government had “responded to the call of duty” to defend “the unity of Syrian territory.”

Despite what appears to have been a deal struck between the two sides, Syrian President Bashar Assad has maintained that he intends to restore the entire territorial integrity of Syria – including what is now under Kurdish rule. It is still unclear exactly what concessions the Kurdish side agreed to as part of the deal. The entry of “popular forces” to Afrin contradicted earlier statements from Erdogan that he had stopped the possibility of a Syrian deployment after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also called for direct talks between Ankara and Damascus, according to Interfax news.

Meanwhile, fierce airstrikes and shelling of Eastern Ghouta killed at least 100 for a second day running Tuesday, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The toll includes some 19 children, Observatory head Rami Abdel-Rahman confirmed to The Daily Star.

The Syrian government, supported by Russian airpower, has been targeting the enclave with a renewed intensity of airstrikes and artillery fire following the conclusion of a prisoner release deal with rebel group Jaish al-Islam on Dec. 29.

Abu Yasir, a doctor in Eastern Ghouta, told The Daily Star that doctors were exhausted from the sheer number of patients and that they were suffering from an acute lack of medical supplies.

Panos Moumtzis, the U.N.’s regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said that he was “appalled and distressed by reports of the horrifying attacks against six hospitals in East Ghouta over the past 48 hours.”

Ahmad Dbis from the Union of Medical Care and Relief Organization told The Daily Star that five hospitals in Ghouta had been targeted Tuesday with missiles and bunker-buster bombs. This followed overnight strikes on the office of the Syrian civil defense forces, also known as the White Helmets, according to White Helmets’ spokesperson Siraj Mahmoud and Dbis.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights Watch and UNICEF condemned the violence in Ghouta in separate official statements.

Nasr al-Hariri, head of the High Negotiations Committee – Syria’s official opposition representation in Geneva – told reporters that the assault on Ghouta was a “flagrant defiance of international law” and urged the U.N. Security Council to take “decisive action,” agencies reported. He also told Al-Arabiya TV the opposition was ready to negotiate the withdrawal of groups from Ghouta. There have been reports of ongoing negotiations to evacuate rebel fighters from Ghouta to Idlib province, another remaining rebel-stronghold.

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