At least 16 casualties in a massacre by Turkish forces’ targeting for the only hospital in Afrin city, Turkish forces try to break into the city from its north
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the Turkish forces and their warplanes renewed their targeting for places in Afrin area, which is located in the northwestern sector of Aleppo Province, where the shelling targeted Afrin Hospital which is the only hospital in the city, and caused a massacre in and around the hospital, where at least 16 people were killed including 2 pregnant women, and others were injured with varying severity, and the death toll is expected to rise because there are some people in critical situation, where it rose to 43 including 7 children and 2 pregnant women, the number of civilians who were killed today, Friday, 16th of March 2018, in Afrin city, raising to 270 including 43 children and 28 citizens, the number of civilians of the al-Kurds, Arabs and Armenians, who were killed in the Turkish aerial, artillery and missile shelling, and in executions against several citizens in Afrin area since the 20th of January 2018, also the shelling injured hundreds of citizens with varying severity.
While violent clashes are taking place between YPG and the Self-Defense Forces against the rebel and Islamic factions and the Turkish Forces, in places in the northern entrance of Afrin city, in an attempt by the “Olive Branch” Operation Forces to advance in the area and storm the city, where the Kurdish Forces are fighting desperately to repel the attack which is accompanied by intensive artillery and rocket shelling, which caused confirmed casualties in the ranks of both parties, where it rose to 447 including 71 soldiers of the Turkish forces, the number of the members and fighters of the Turkish forces and the factions who were killed in the clashes against the Kurdish Units in Afrin area, while it rose to 429, the number of fighters of the YPG and the Self-Defense forces who were killed in the shelling and clashes in Afrin countryside, since the start of Operation “Olive Branch”, while 91 members at least of regime forces’ NDF were killed in the Turkish shelling since they started to enter on the 20th of February 2018.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published hours ago that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the Turkish Forces advance and reaches the vicinity of Maabatli town “Mabata”, which is inhabited by Kurdish citizens of the Alawite sect, amid shelling targeted areas at the outskirts of town and its surroundings, with the continuation of Turkish shelling on Afrin city and its countryside of, amid overflights by Turkish warplanes in the sky of the area.
In the same context, the displacement of citizens from Afrin city to the towns of Nubl and Zahra continue, in an attempt by civilians to reach these two towns which are control by fighters loyal to the regime, after the displacement of more than 35000 civilians during the past 48 hours, fleeing the city which suffers catastrophic humanitarian conditions, where the fear on lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians in Afrin city and connected villages continues, amid repeated calls by civilians through the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights to the international community to move and do something about the Turkish holocaust that began on Wednesday, the 14th of March 2018, by aerial and ground bombardment on Afrin city, where the areas that are connected to it still have no electricity, water and communications, and also suffer sharp decrease in the bread and fuel, while queues of civilians continue to line up in front of the only remaining bread furnace in Afrin city.