In an escalation on SDF’s controlled areas… Turkish artillery shell Afrin city for the first time since their start of preparations to attack it

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the Turkish forces continue to shell areas in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo which is controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, where the Turkish artillery targeted places in al-Ashrafyyeh area in Afrin city and other areas in Qastal Jandu and Qatma villages in the countryside of the city, and the shelling caused several injuries, including one serious injury, while the continuous shelling on the vicinity of the city and its countryside led to the breaking out of fire in the citizens’ properties and farms, amid a state of resentment prevailing in the area because of the ​​targeting of the city, and this is considered the first targeting of the city since the start of Turkish preparations and the arrival of reinforcements to the south of A’zaz city in the northern countryside of  Aleppo near the Syrian – Turkish border since the 20th of  June 2017, and these preparations aimed at attacking the SDF and the Kurdish Forces-held areas in Afrin and northern countryside of Aleppo.

It worth mentioning that the Turkish Forces shelled yesterday areas controlled by SDF which injured several persons, and earlier, demonstrations were carried out in Afrin area which is controlled by YPG in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo, where tens of thousands of people carried out demonstrations denouncing the Turkish intervention and the military operation which Turkey intends to carry out against the Syria Democratic Forces in Afrin area and the northern countryside of Aleppo, and they also denounced the Turkish shelling which left casualties and injuries yesterday in villages controlled by the Syria Democratic forces, also widespread resentment prevails people in SDF controlled areas in the northern and northwestern countryside of Aleppo, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that this resentment came after the Turkish shelling that targeted villages controlled by the Syria Democratic Forces, killing a woman and 2 of her children and injuring about 20 others, also the Syrian Observatory published earlier that tensions prevails the northern countryside of Aleppo, near the Syrian-Turkish borders. The SOHR learned that this tension came after the arrival of the reinforcements of the Turkish forces to the southern countryside of Azaz. Tensions are also mixed up with anticipation in Afrin area for any developments in the current situation amid continued preparations of by the factions of the countryside of Aleppo along with the Turkish forces to carry out a wide-scale military operation against the Syria Democratic Forces in Afrin and the area located between Marea’ and Deir Jamal in the northern countryside of Aleppo, which aims to get thousands of displaced people to their villages, where the Afrin Area and its outskirts is witnessing an escalation of Turkish shelling and exchange of shelling between the factions and the Syria Democratic Forces along with the tension that prevailed the area since the 20th of June 2017, with the start entry of the Turkish reinforcement to the southern countryside of Azaz.