Turkish airstrikes have killed 55 civilians in ten days, activists claim

 

 

More than 300 people have been arrested in Turkey for making negative comments about the government’s military offensive in Syria on social media.

Turkey launched its operation ‘Olive Branch’ against the Kurdish militia in Syria’s northwestern region of Afrin ten days ago.

The incursion sees Erdogan’s army providing air and ground support to Syrian opposition fighters to drive out the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it deems a ‘terror’ group.

The YPG played a key role in defeating ISIS across swathes of Syria and received support from the United States.

Some 55 civilians, including several children, have so far been killed in air strikes and artillery fire in the area near the Turkish border, according to human rights activists.

Last week, Turkish authorities warned they would prosecute those opposing, criticising or misrepresenting the incursion.

🔴 It’s below zero degrees on the vast dirt hillside above Totah but through the mist and freezing rain, I can see the Syrian general’s target, a small Isis-held village across a valley of mud. There’s a crash of artillery fire from his Shilka guns, and you wait several seconds before the shells fall behind a clump of hillside trees.

The Interior Ministry said on Monday a total of 311 people, including politicians, journalists and activists, had been held for ‘spreading terrorist propaganda’ on social media since the offensive began.

The ministry said the suspects are accused of supporting Syrian-Kurdish militia and were detained in the past week but did not provide further details.

https://youtu.be/Ic2AqP9WdJc

At least 14 people, including five children, died Sunday in Turkish air strikes in Afrin, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

It says 55 civilians have been killed since the start of the offensive. Turkey strongly rejects such claims, saying it is doing everything possible to avoid civilian casualties in the operation.

Turkish bombs also destroyed an ancient Byzantine temple built in Afrin during the Iron Age, the Observatory claims.

https://youtu.be/0at2s0zvmGQ

Ain Dara temple had remains of large carved basalt blocks and wall reliefs, but pictured circulating online show an apparent shell crater in the site.

A statement from the Syrian government’s antiquities department carried by Syrian state media called for international pressure on Turkey ‘to prevent the targeting of archaeological and cultural site’.

https://youtu.be/27DFMZfI4CI

Turkey considers the U.S.-backed YPG, which controls Afrin, to be a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast since 1984.

https://youtu.be/kwR0UCL2n4E

The military operation has been widely supported by Turkey’s mainly pro-government media and by most political parties, with the exception of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

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