on the 8th day of escalation of shelling, more than 10 Turkish warplanes carry out airstrikes on Afrin city and its countryside leaving causalities
Aleppo province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights:: Violent and consecutive explosions rocked the SDF-held area of Afrin located in the northwestern part of the countryside of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned that the airstrikes carried out by more than 10 warplanes simultaneously targeted areas in the city of Afrin and other areas in its countryside, where the raids targeted the areas of Raju, Jundairs, Shara Mabta and Shirawa, causing material damage, and leaving several people injured, who were transferred to hospitals for treatment, and these air raids are the first raids of Turkish warplanes on the area of Afrin city and areas, and the air raids come within the escalation of the Turkish shelling for the 8th day in a row, while the warplanes are still flying in the sky of the city, amid an alert and fears of the people in the city and its suburbs and countryside.
The SOHR published yesterday that the artillery shelling by the Turkish forces and the Turkish backed factions is still ongoing on Afrin area and the northern countryside of Aleppo, where the SDF-held area located, and the SOHR monitored shelling targeting places in Tel Refa’at area and other areas near al-Shahba’ dam, which is controlled by the SDF. They also shelled areas in Afrin district, where an exchange of shelling and machine gun fire took place between the SDF against the Turkish forces in the borders of Afrin and the Turkish side, and there is no information about causalities so far.
The Turkish forces targeted for the second time in a row, the countryside of Al-Malkiya area (Dirik) in the Syrian-Iraqi-Turkish triangle border, in the far northeast of Hassaka province, causing material damage, and no information about human losses, 72 hours after targeting Baraz area located in the same triangle area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published yesterday morning that it learned that the shelling on Afrin area by the Turkish forces and the factions supported by them that operate within “The Euphrates Shield” Operation, is still continuing after it entered its second week since it started on the 13th of January 2018, and reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the shelling which was carried out today the 20th of January 2018, targeted areas in Qarrah Baba village and Jisr Hashraka as well as other places in the townships of Raju and Bulbula in Afrin countryside, in conjunction with shelling targeted areas in the villages of Bailuniyyah, Al-Malikiyah and Maraanaz in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and the shelling resulted in the fall of 2 wounded rising to 6 people including 2
children and a woman, the number of citizens, who were injured since the first day of escalation in addition to a fighter was killed few days before this shelling, and the shelling was accompanied by the flight of Turkish reconnaissance planes over Afrin area.
The SOHR published on the 19th of January that it learned from several reliable sources that the Russian forces haven’t evacuated their positions in Afrin area so far, despite the escalation of preparations of the Turkish military operation claimed to begin within hours of upcoming days. The SOHR published yesterday that hundreds of fighters of the factions operating within “The Euphrates Shield” Operation, as well as the Turkish-backed rebel and Islamic factions operating in Aleppo, headed from the northern countryside of Aleppo through the Turkish side, to the fronts adjacent the northern border of Afrin area with Turkey and its western border with Afrin area.