The Turkish forces and their allied Syrian opposition factions control Saint Maron Shrine in the north of Aleppo and come closer to the towns of Nobol and Al-Zahraa

Aleppo province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:: the SOHR learned from several reliable sources that the Turkish forces managed with the rebel and Islamic factions of the Syrian opposition operating in “Olive Branch” Operation to control the villages of Kimar and Barad, following violent clashes against the People’s Committees loyal to the regime force and their allied militiamen from the towns of Nobol and Al-Zahraa, where this advancmend alloed them to come closer to the towns of Nobol and Al-Zahraa, and these forces have become about 5 kilometers away from these towns, which are inhabited by Shiite people in the northern countryside of Aleppo. the SOHR also learned that the “Olive Branch” Operation forces controlled Saint Maron Shrine located in Barad village, where the clashes which were accompanied by an exchange of heavy shelling between both parties caused the fall of human losses in the ranks of both parties, amid fears in the towns of Nobol and Al-Zahraa about the attack of the forces of “Olive Branch” Operation on both towns, especially that the clashes took place between militants from these two towns against the Turkish forces and the Syrian oppositions factions loyal to Turkey. The reliable sources stressed that these clashes caused displacement of thousands of people who were already displaced from Afrin area to flee again the clash areas towards the towns of Nobol and Al-Zahraa, which have become full of displaced people, where thousands of displaced people exist in the towns and suffer tragic humanitarian conditions, which is worsening as result of little humanitarian aid, where these control operations come in the wake of the Turkish control on Afrin area completely on the 18th of March 2018, where this control took place after a military operation launched by Turkey on the 20th of January 2018, and finished with controlling the entire area of Afrin and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of citizens, and the withdrawal of the YPG from the area, and after 1500 fighters at least of the YPG and the Self-Defense forces were killed, since Operation “Olive Branch” started, while 525 members and fighters of the Turkish forces and the factions including 78 soldiers of the Turkish forces, were killed in the clashes against the Kurdish Units in Afrin area, and 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, and the SOHR also documented 289 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.

And the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published yesterday that it monitored since the 10th of March 2018, the escalation of the displacement from Afrin area, after a series of displacement from a village to another and from a town to another, reaching Afrin city in order to be gathered there, after long travels during which some displaced people stayed in caves for several days, until the pace of the Turkish shelling is decreased and to find save place or a way enables them to reach Afrin city, but others were not able to arrive, and some of them killed by Turkish strikes, raids or snipers, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the displacement of hundreds of thousands of citizens from Afrin countryside to the city, until mostly left in a mass displacement through mountains and paved and rugged roads and transported to areas in the northern countryside of Aleppo, where hundreds of thousands of citizens were distributed in areas where the forces of the “Olive Branch” Operation intend to start a military operation, according to obtained information, after the factions had lost them for the SDF in the northern countryside of Aleppo in early 2016, and although 11 consecutive days passed, hundreds of thousands of citizens are still stay in the open, amid bad weather witnessed in the area.