ANKARA – Turkey’s military says eight Turkish soldiers have been killed byKurdish forces from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin region innorthwest Syria.
The Turkish forces were killed in a YPG attack on a tank, the military saidon Saturday.
Turkey has been waging “Operation Olive Branch” against Syria’s Afrinregion since January 20 in a bid to eliminate the US-backed YPG, whichAnkara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawedKurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The latter has been fighting for anautonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
The YPG forms the backbone of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),a US-backed anti-Damascus militant group.
Ankara has warned that the Afrin offensive could also expand to the nearbySyrian city of Manbij.
Turkey has also been assisting militants from the so-called Free SyrianArmy (FSA) to fight against the Kurdish fighters.
The Syrian government has condemned the “brutal Turkish aggression” againstAfrin, rejecting Ankara’s claim about having informed Damascus of theoperation.
In recent days, Turkey has arrested more than 300 people, includingpoliticians, journalists and activists, for social media posts criticizingits military offensive in Afrin.
The Turkish military said in a statement on Tuesday that at least 260members of the YPG and the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group had been killed inthe Afrin operation. The SDF has also claimed to kill dozens of Turkishforces and allied FSA members.
Operation Olive Branch in Afrin region is Turkey’s second major militaryintervention in Syria during the unprecedented foreign-backed militancythat broke out in 2011.
In August 2016, Turkey began a unilateral military intervention in northernSyria, code-named Operation Euphrates Shield, sending tanks and warplanesacross the border. Ankara claimed that its military campaign was aimed atpushing Daesh from Turkey’s border with Syria and stopping the advance ofKurdish forces, who were themselves fighting Daesh.
Turkey ended its campaign in northern Syria in March 2017, but at the timedid not rule out the possibility of yet another act of military offensiveinside the Arab country.