Armed Turkish drones were targeting “terrorists” fleeing the area while some clashes continued in the streets as forces searched each neighbourhood, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
The forces of Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch had advanced under cover of intense shelling and airstrikes that destroyed large parts of the town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which confirmed that some clashes were continuing as the Turkish forces sought to solidify their control over the entire town.
Turkey now controls five towns in the Kurdish enclave: Jandaris, Bulbul, Shera, Rajo, and Sheikh Hadid.
A woman and her three children were killed in airstrikes Thursday morning in a rural area of western Afrin, raising civilian death toll to 199; 69 of the deaths came after the UN Security Council’s unanimously adopted a ceasefire, the Observatory stated.
The Kurdish YPG have accepted the ceasefire, but maintain the right to self-defence. Turkey has taken the position that the truce does not apply to Afrin.
The conflict monitor expressed concern for the civilian population in the Kurdish enclave because of the humanitarian situation that is deteriorating hour-by-hour. Water and electricity supplies have suffered interruptions and communications have been largely cut off by Turkish strikes.
The Observatory said that forces at regime-controlled checkpoints in Aleppo are charging people between $1,000 and $2,200 per person. Warning of a possible siege, it called on the United Nations to open a humanitarian corridor to allow as many as one million civilians to flee.
The UN had previously estimated the population of Afrin to be around 323,000.
Turkey denies harming civilians in its military offensive.
As civilian casualties continue to climb, an Arab commander within the YPG-led SDF warned that they may withdraw more troops from the war against ISIS and redeploy them to defend Afrin.
Earlier this week, 1,700 fighters from the SDF, the coalition of forces fighting ISIS in northern Syria alongside the US-led coalition, were redeployed from the ISIS front in Deir ez-Zor, eastern Syria, to Afrin.
That decision was made “at a time of international silence in the face of the barbarism of the Turks against civilians,” Abu Ali Bard, general commander of the Revolutionary Forces (Jaysh al-Thuwar), a militia fighting under the SDF banner, told ANHA news.
This was not the first batch of fighters sent to Afrin, he added, noting that they will send more, if need be.
The United States has expressed concern about the escalation of violence in Afrin, but also lamented the loss of their allies fighting ISIS on the ground that has hampered efforts to finally defeat the terror group in eastern Syria.
Jandaris town on Thursday, March 8. Photo: Omar Haj Kadour/AFP
