Turkish troops and opposition fighters lay siege to Syrian town
● Military say they have taken control of critical areas in Kurdish-held Afrin
Turkish troops and allied opposition fighters have begun a siege of the Syrian Kurdish-held northern town of Afrin.
The Turkish military said the siege of Afrin, the main town in the enclave of the same name, had begun on Monday.
It said the military had taken control of “critical areas” of the town.
Thousands of people had started to flee Afrin on Monday as the Turkish troops got closer to the town, heading towards nearby governmentcontrolled areas.
Turkey launched a military offensive into the border enclave on 20 January to drive out Syrian Kurdish forces that it considers to be “terrorists” and an extension of Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey.
The violence in northern Syria came as the largest rebel group in the besieged suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus vowed not to leave the area and to continue fighting advancing government forces as opposition activists reported a new wave of bombardment yesterday morning that inflicted casualties.
The Army of Islam statement came hours after it said it had reached an agreement with government-allied Russian forces to evacuate the wounded from the enclave.
Its statement said the deal with the Russians was reached through the United Nations.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday that the evacuations were expected to begin “within hours” under UN supervision.
Syrian TV showed some people arriving at the Wafideen crossing after they left the area with a woman saying that she had been waiting for more than a year to evacuate her sick child.
The TV channel also showed an older man being carried while on a wheelchair before boarding an ambulance. Another woman was held as she could hardly walk.
The Army of Islam statement on Monday was responding to some local reports that said it was negotiating with the Syrian government and its Russian backers to leave the area, known as eastern Ghouta.
Syrian government forces have captured more than half of eastern Ghouta over the past two weeks and laid a siege on the group’s stronghold of Douma.
Eastern Ghouta is home to some 400,000 people. They are living in harsh conditions because of the bombardment and a lack of food resulting from the government siege.
Opposition activists say that since the latest wave of bombings and ground offensives began, more than 1,100 civilians have been killed in eastern Ghouta.
The Observatory and the opposition’s Syrian Civil Defence reported a wave of air strikes and shelling yesterday morning on the towns of Saqba, Jisreen and Kfar Batna, killing and wounding two dozen people.
The Observatory reported that evacuations of insurgents and their families began from another rebel-held pocket south of Damascus.
It said hundreds of fighters and their families had begun leaving on board buses from the neighbourhood of Qadam.
They were heading towards the rebel-held province of Idlib, which is situated in the north-west of the country.
It said the government had reached an agreement with rebels in Qadam to evacuate the area recently.
The move appears to have angered the Islamic State group that controls two areas adjacent to Qadam.
Islamic State attacked areas evacuated by the rebels and handed over to Syrian troops, the Observatory said.
Islamic State leaders have also issued a statement saying that its fighters attacked Syrian army positions in Qadam, inflicting casualties among the troops.
Islamic State said it attacked troops in positions they took from rebels.