Turkish-led forces oust Kurds from Syria’s Afrin
AFRIN: Turkey’s flag was flying in Syria’s Afrin on Sunday after Turkish troops and Ankarabacked rebels chased out Kurdish militia forces to seize control of the northern city.
In a major victory for Ankara’s two-month operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, Turkish-led forces pushed into Afrin apparently unopposed, taking up positions across the city.
The advance came as Syria’s civil war entered its eighth year this week with heavy fighting on two fronts -- around Afrin and in the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
Hundreds have been killed and thousands forced from their homes by the assault in Ghouta, where Russian-backed forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are battling to retake the last rebel enclave outside the capital.
In Afrin, AFP correspondents saw Turkish forces and their Syrian allies in all neighbourhoods of the city after they made a lightning advance inside on Sunday.
Rebels fanned out across the city, giving victory signs and taking pictures with Turkish tanks parked outside official buildings.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkeybacked fighters had taken control of the city centre at 8:30 am. He said a “large number” of Kurdish fighters had “fled with their tails between their legs”.
“Our work is not finished .... but terrorism is finished in Afrin,” government spokesman Bekir Bozdag tweeted. AFP