ANKARA (Sputnik) – The Syrian Defense Forces’ press service reported of 308Turkish servicemen killed since the start of the Olive Branch operation inAfrin. This number contradicts Ankara’s reports.
“We have 43 victims among our fighters, including eight women from the YPJ(women’s self-defense forces). 134 civilians were wounded and 59 are dead,”the statement said.
According to the Syrian Defense Forces, since January 20, the Turkish AirForces have carried out 191 sorties and dropped 699 shells on the territoryin the north of Syria. During the operation, there have been 136 clashesbetween the SDF and the advancing forces. The SDF even mentions seven moreclashes, “the results of which have not been not confirmed.”
“Turkish aggression led to… the deaths of 308 members of various offensivetroops, with four officers and a general among them,” the SDF stated.
However, the Turkish Health Ministry has refuted the number of itsservicemen killed, claiming that only three have died since the startof the operation.
“Three Turkish servicemen were killed during the country’s operationin Syria’s Afrin and 16 remain hospitalized, a spokesperson of the TurkishHealth Ministry told Sputnik on Friday.
“To date, three Turkish servicemen have been killed during the operationin Afrin …Several dozen have been injured, most of them received medicalassistance on site. As many as 16 are in the hospital, their condition isnot critical,” the spokesperson said.
According to the latest data released by the Turkish military, a totalof 343 “terrorists” have been eliminated since the beginning of the OliveBranch operation, which was launched on January 20.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed that Ankaracould extend its third military advance in Syria all the way east to theborder with Iraq, emphasizing that the country would “completely clear theregion of terrorists, beginning with Manbij and throughout our entireborder [with Syria].”
The Olive Branch offensive was launched on January 20 in theKurdish-dominated Syrian city of Afrin, controlled by the US-backed KurdishPeople’s Protection Units (YPG). The latter is considered to be anaffiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated as a terroristgroup in Turkey and some other countries.
Despite Moscow and Washington’s opposition to the operation, Ankarastresses that the advance is not aimed against the Syrian governmentlink>,calling the territorial integrity of Syria its common goal with Damascus.
The operation hasn’t come as a surprise, as Turkey has been mulling itover since the USlink>announcementof plans to train a 30,000-strong border force in northern Syria mostlyfrom YPG fighters, which was strongly criticized by Turkey. Within a weekafter the plans had been declared, Ankara launched an offensive in Syria’sKurdish enclave of Afrinlink>code-namedOlive Branch and aimed at eliminating terrorists in the region.