Ongoing fighting in the area between Afrin and Nuble and Al-Zahraa and shelling by “Olive Branch” Operation Forces leaves human losses

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that the violent clashes are still continuing between “Olive Branch” Operation Forces against the militiamen loyal to the regime, in the vicinity of Kimar village and other positions on the contact lines between the both parties, in the area between Afrin and the towns of Nuble and Al-Zahraa, as a result of violent attack started by “Olive Branch” Operation Forces in an attempt to achieve advancement in the area, and expand their control, and the clashes were accompanied by Turkish shelling on the clash areas, which resulted in the fall of human losses, where several members of the militiamen loyal to the regime were killed as a result of these strikes, while others where injured, and information about human losses in the ranks of “Olive Branch” Operation Forces, 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.