Turkish army kills 15 civilians, including children in Syria’s Afrin

AFRIN, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish airstrikes and bombardment killed 15 civilians, including children and women, and injured dozens in Syria’s Afrin region on Monday.

Turkish warplanes launched several airstrikes on the town of Jandaris, south of Afrin, killing 13, including three children, and wounding 22 others, Kurdistan 24 correspondent in Afrin Mohammad Billo learned from Afrin’s city hospital.

Additionally, two civilians lost their lives, and eight were wounded in another Turkish airstrike on Fareriya village in the countryside of Jandaris, Afrin Media Center (AMC) said in an online statement.

“A 3-month child, Diana Saleh, and Mahmoud Alo, 20, lost their lives in the Turkish airstrikes on Fareriya village,” AMC stated.

AMC is a Syria-based information office in Afrin city that has been documenting the Turkish assault on the region since January.

The Syrian Observatory for Human rights (SOHR), a Britain-based monitor, reported a different account of the casualties.

It said heavy Turkish airstrikes had killed 17 people and injured 92 others.

Many were still under the rubble, which might raise the number of victims, the monitor added.

The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution on Feb. 24 demanding a full month-long ceasefire across Syria excluding only groups that it had designated as terrorists.

Turkey has said the ceasefire resolution does not apply to its operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin and has rejected Western calls for it to implement the truce.

Since launching the campaign on Jan. 20, the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels have since gained control over the outer edge of Afrin along its border with Turkey.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Additional reporting by Kurdistan 24 correspondent Mohammad Billo in Afrin)