After disconnecting communication of it, Turkish Forces cut off the electricity and water from Midanki Dam and Afrin area
47 Days of clashes in Afrin have claimed the lives of about 1000 civilians and fighters of Kurdish Forces and Operation “Olive Branch”
The aerial bombardment operations, violent ground clashes and tragic humanitarian conditions are worsening every day, with the Turkish attack narrowing the cycle of death, after more than 1 million persons have gathered in Afrin city and in villages around it, fleeing a death they fear that it may chase them to the place of their displacement, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the Turkish Forces being able to control a strategic facility, which is Midanki Dam, a Dam that provides wide areas of Afrin with electricity and water, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from several reliable sources that the Turkish Forces have cut off the power of Midanki Dam, aka “17 Nisan”, and also cut off the water which added a new human tragedy to the dire humanitarian conditions of hundreds of thousands of people living in Afrin, amid Turkish killing for the inhabitants of the area and the people who displaced to it, following Turkish aerial and ground targeting for telecommunication towers and the cut off of communications in most of Afrin area.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the Turkish warplanes carry out more air and missile strikes targeting the area, where the warplanes intensively raided today Jendires town, in conjunction with air and artillery strikes on villages in its countryside and other areas in Sharra Township in the northeastern countryside of Afrin, also Qert Qolab village witnessed a violent Turkish air bombardment caused injuries and substantial material damage, amid violent clashes at the entrances the town and its surroundings, between the Turkish Forces and the rebel and Islamic factions against YPG and the Self-Defense Forces, in conjunction with a fight in the northern and northeastern countryside of Afrin area, where the Turkish Forces were able today to advance in Kafr Jannah area; and controlled the camp in which remains the bodies of about 23 members of regime’s NDF, they still under the rubble caused by previous Turkish bombardment days ago on their sites, raising to at least 81, the number of members who were killed in the Turkish shelling since their entered on the 20th of February 2018.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has also monitored pulling the bodies of 8 citizens from under the rubble in Jendires town, which raised the death toll to 185 Syrian citizens of the Kurds, Arabs and Armenians, including 29 children and 25 women, they were killed in the Turkish aerial, rocket and artillery shelling, and executions carried out against citizens in Afrin area, since the 20th of January 2018, where the number of casualties has increased after extracting more bodies stuck under the rubble of destruction in Jendires area and other areas in Afrin countryside, and the shelling resulted in resulted in the injury of hundreds of citizens with varying severity, and the missing of others, while some of injured cases have permanent disabilities, and the total death toll includes 69 civilian casualties including 6 children and 7 women, who have been killed since the UNSC resolution was issued, while more than 337 others were injured with varying severity, including tens of children and women.
The Turkish forces have controlled the 4 main towns; which are Sharra, Rajo, Bulbula and al-Sheik Hadid, while they are trying to control Jendires town and advance to Maabatli town, among the 103 villages they have controlled so far since the start of Operation “Olive Branch” on the 20th of January 2018, which is equivalent to about 30% of all towns and villages of Afrin, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also monitored the increase numbers of casualties in the ranks of the warring parties, where it rose to 374 including 68 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 338, the number of fighters of the YPG and the Self-Defense forces who were killed in the shelling and clashes in Afrin countryside, also hundreds of citizens, fighters and soldiers were injured with different severity, some of them have permanent disabilities, and the Turkish Forces after advancing in Sharra Township and its areas; have become hundreds of meters away of Midanki Dam aka “17 Nisan”, which is of a strategic importance to the area, which was previously subjected to Turkish aerial bombardments that caused damage to the dam area, which is located about 10 km away of Afrin city.
The fears for the lives of the citizens have increased, after intersected sources told the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, that the Turkish shelling targeted the communication towers during the past 24 hours, which resulted in interruption of the communication networks and the Internet almost completely, with deteriorating the humanitarian conditions of the citizens and the lack of medicines and food, as a result of the mass escape of the families from their houses, and as a result of their gathering all in a small geographical area in the center of Afrin.