| | | Date: Mar 19, 2018 | | Source: The Daily Star |  |  |  |
| | Turkish-led forces capture town of Afrin, dealing blow to Kurds | Gemma Fox| The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Turkish and Syrian-allied forces announced Sunday that they had established “total” control over the town Afrin, dealing a blow to Kurdish aspirations in northern Syria after the loss of the key stronghold. Meanwhile, Syrian forces have taken more than 80 percent of Eastern Ghouta, and a spokesperson from a main rebel faction told The Daily Star they were in “serious” negotiations with the United Nations about a cease-fire agreement.
Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army spokesperson Lt. Mohammad al-Hamadeen said in comments to The Daily Star that forces entered Afrin city early Sunday and, facing “weak resistance,” quickly established full control.
He said Kurdish fighters quickly withdrew to regime-held areas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a speech commemorating the World War I Gallipoli campaign, said that most of the Kurdish fighters had “fled with tails between their legs.”
“In Afrin’s center, it is no longer the rags of the terror organization that are waving but rather the symbols of peace and security,” he said, according to agencies.
He also added that the allied forces were now combing the area for traps left behind.
Former Kurdish leader Salih Muslim tweeted that Kurdish fighters had withdrawn from the city, but vowed “the struggle will continue.”
Videos appearing to show a Turkish flag being raised on a balcony of a Parliament building were posted by the Turkish military on social media and widely shared on WhatsApp groups.
One soldier reportedly said that the capture was a “gift” to Turkey and to fallen soldiers on the anniversary of the Gallipoli campaign, according to agencies.
In a televised news conference, Othman Sheikh Issa, an official from Afrin, responded with a warning that the war against Turkish forces would enter a new phase, moving from direct confrontation to the “hit and run tactics” of guerrilla warfare.
It was also announced that all civilians would be evacuated, as Syrian state TV showed long lines of vehicles and civilians leaving the city.
The priority, Hamadeen said, was now to direct forces toward Manbij – an area where U.S. troops maintain a presence and which has proved to be a key point of tension between the U.S. and Turkey.
Rami Abdel-Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told The Daily Star that nearly 200,000 people had fled the Afrin region into regime-held areas in recent days amid intense airstrikes.
Issa also said at least 500 civilians had been killed in the past 58 days of fighting and more than 800 Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters, according to agencies.
In a separate fighting front to the south, Syrian armed forces continued their advance into besieged Eastern Ghouta, establishing control of more than 80 percent of the enclave.
Wael Alwan, a spokesperson from Failaq al-Rahman, a key rebel faction in Eastern Ghouta, told The Daily Star “serious” negotiations were now underway with the U.N. to come to a cease-fire agreement.
The negotiations would also principally focus, he said, on civilian protection and the delivery of aid.
He denied, however, rumors that the negotiations would discuss an exit strategy for the rebels.
Reuters reported that an opposition source said that secret talks were being held with rebels separately, in an attempt to “divide and rule” the opposition. Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have split Eastern Ghouta into three besieged areas in one of the bloodiest campaigns of the 7-year-old war.
Meanwhile, Assad visited an unspecified location in Eastern Ghouta – the first such visit in years – to congratulate troops fighting rebels in the besieged enclave.
“The inhabitants of Damascus are more than grateful and they will maybe tell their children in the coming decades how you saved the capital,” Assad told soldiers in an official video.
United Nations coordinator in Syria Ali al-Za’tari told Reuters that the U.N. was working toward getting another aid convoy of 25 to 30 trucks to Douma, in the northern part of Ghouta.
The fierce air and ground campaign in the enclave has killed over 1,400 civilians since Feb. 18, according to the observatory. |
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