Turkey announced that it had launched Operation Olive Branch on January 20 to clear Syria's Afrin region of the YPG/PKK and Daesh, which Turkey considers a threat to its national security.Syrian residents of Tel Rifaat city, including some fighters from the Free Syrian Army, stage a rally between Azaz city and Sijo town, demanding a Turkish military operation against the YPG/PKK terrorist group in Tal Rifaat, in Azaz, Aleppo on March 26, 2018. (Saher el Hacci /AA)
On March 18, the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) announced that they had cleared Afrin city centre of the YPG/PKK, on the 58th day of the operation.
“The message to terrorist organizations and to the whole world is clear: Turkey will continue to move forward with steady steps on the path of trust, stability, and justice,” Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a message posted on Twitter.
The operation was launched days after the US announced the formation of a 30,000-strong Border Security Force made of YPG and Syrian Democratic Forces or SDF militants near Turkey's border in northern Syria.
A map showing areas held by various
players in northwestern Syria where Turkey is conducting Operation Olive
Branch against YPG/PKK and Daesh militants.
Turkey’s biggest security concern is the YPG carving out an autonomous territory near its southeastern border.
The
US supports the SDF, a YPG-dominated group it founded in 2015, in
northeast Syria. Afrin, in the northwest, has no such support from the
US. However, several hundreds of Russian soldiers are based in the
region.
TRT World has the latest on the operation:
March 27:Day 67 of Turkey's Operation Olive Branch in Afrin
05:38 GMT:
Two Turkish soldiers have been killed in Syria’s northwestern Afrin region on Monday, during a sweep and clear mission, according to the Turkish army.
The total number of Turkish soldiers killed since Operation Olive Branch started in northwestern Syria's Afrin rises to 51 while 228 others were wounded.
March 26:
Day 66 of Turkey's Operation Olive Branch in Afrin
17:30 GMT:
Turkey’s government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said 3,755 terrorists have been neutralised since the beginning of the operation.
“Turkey’s not done in Afrin. It will continue till life returns to normal,” Bozdag added.
"Totally 332 regions which 282 of them villages and 50 critical sites are under control."
Bozdag also said that Turkey provides assist 40.000 civilians in 106 spots.
11:34 GMT:
A bomb planted by YPG/PKK militants explodes inside a house in Afrin, northwestern Syria, leaving a family of six trapped under the debris.
09:18 GMT:
Turkish military discovered a workshop of improvised explosive devices (IED) during security sweeps in Syria’s Afrin region, recently cleared from terrorists.
During the search, the security forces found a barn used by the YPG/PKK as an IED manufacturing facility.
08:08 GMT:
Children forced out of school by YPG/PKK terrorists were overjoyed to return to their classrooms in Afrin, northwestern Syria, two years later.
Turkey has undertaken a school renovation project in Afrin where a counter-terror operation is ongoing.
08:07 GMT:
Some of the business places, including bakers, barbers and restaurant, were opened in the Afrin Center, which was cleaned from terrorists.
08:01 GMT:
The teenage members of the YPG/PKK terrorist organization, who were interrogated by Turkish authorities, revealed their forced recruitment by the terror group in northwestern Syria.
The teenagers also revealed the terror group’s organizational structure, the process of arming the children and the planting of booby traps in Afrin region.
In his statement at the Criminal Court of Peace in the southern Turkish province of Kilis, YPG/PKK member A.K., 17, said he visited his relatives in Afrin last year when the YPG/PKK were recruiting children from every house under the campaign of the “military recruitment”.
March 24:
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