Turkish forces, rebels besiege Kurds in Afrin
Hundreds of thousands surrounded
• Turkish forces along with allied rebels completely surrounded the Syrian city of Afrin Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of its mostly Kurdish residents besieged.
Hundreds of civilians managed to flee the advancing troops on Monday, but an estimated 700,000 are now encircled in Afrin and surrounding villages and towns.
The only road out was in range of Turkish artillery fire and was therefore impassable, the U.K.-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Some 230 civilians have been killed in Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch. However, Kurdish fighters warned the new siege could trigger a humanitarian crisis. There was no water in the city yesterday after Turkish forces seized control of the local dam, and residents say they have relied on water wells for their consumption.
“Where is the international community? Why don’t they cry tears for all Syrian civilians, not only some?” Ahmed Murad, a resident of Afrin told The Daily Telegraph. “They are too scared to criticize their Turkish ally.”
While attention in recent weeks has focused on a ferocious regime assault on rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, in Syria’s north Turkish forces and Syrian opposition fighters have been advancing in their offensive against the Kurdish enclave.
Turkey launched its operation on Jan. 20, saying it intended to clear the border of People’s Protection Unit (YPG) fighters, whom they consider terrorists. However, its mission has expanded to include territory deep into Syria.
Senior Turkish officials have said that Ankara was trying, through war, to take lands it occupied during the Ottoman Empire. “We aim to give Afrin back to its rightful owners,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president, has said.
Redur Xelil, head of foreign relations for the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.backed alliance of fighters that includes the YPG, accused the Turkish forces of carrying out “demographic change” in Kurdish territory captured in Afrin.
The United Nations said that it received “disturbing reports” of civilian deaths in the northwestern Syrian enclave and that it believes “tens of thousands” have been displaced. Turkey denied the claims.
The Turkish offensive opened a new front in a multi-sided civil war which enters its eighth year tomorrow. Turkey considers the YPG a serious threat to its security, while the U.S. has relied on the group in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).