Civilians get safe passage
SYRIA: Turkey’s president says civilians will be led out of the Syrian enclave of Afrin through a ‘‘special corridor’’, as his country’s offensive against the Kurdishmajority city heats up.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels would have completely encircled Afrin – home to more than 700,000 people – by the end of the day.
‘‘All care is being taken. Right now, the first civilians are being taken out of Afrin in vehicles through a special corridor,’’ the president said, as his forces bombed the last remaining road out.
Afrin, which is controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), is bordered to the north and west by Turkey and to the south by governmentcontrolled Syrian territory. Turkish raids have killed 10 fighters loyal to the Syrian regime, which last month deployed forces to Afrin’s southern outskirts after the Kurds asked for help. The fighters then shelled Turkish positions.
As the Syrian civil war enters its eighth year today, the latest advances risk pitting Turkey against the Bashar al-Assad regime – a confrontation it has so far gone to great lengths to avoid, preferring to fight through proxies.
The violence in Afrin has displaced thousands of civilians and left those trapped there with limited resources.
Azad Mohamed, a resident, said he waited in line for eight hours to get a few loaves of bread. The water supply to the city has also been cut off for a week. The International Committee for the Red Cross warned yesterday that any evacuation of Afrin must adhere to humanitarian rules.
Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch with the aim of clearing YPG militants, who it considers terrorists, from along its southern frontier.
Since the start of the war in 2011, the YPG and its allies have set up three autonomous regions in northern Syria.
Nato member countries have remained relatively quiet over their ally’s offensive.
Bombardment by the Syrian regime and its ally Russia killed 25 civilians, among them three children, in the embattled rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta yesterday, a monitor said.
– Telegraph Group