Turkish soldier killed by rocket attack in Afrin

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Turkish soldier was killed in a rocket attack in the occupied northwest Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin on Wednesday, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced. 

“A heroic comrade in arms was martyred as a result of the rocket attack on one of our elements in the Operation Olive Branch region by terrorists,” the defense ministry tweeted. “May God have mercy on our martyr. We express our condolences and patience to his grieving family, Turkish Armed Forces, and our noble nation.” 

In a follow-up tweet, the ministry said the military retaliated, and “24 terrorists were neutralized according to the initial determinations.” 

The Turkish military invariably uses the term “neutralized” to refer to killed, wounded, or captured enemy combatants. 

The dead soldier was named Talha Bahadir. 

The incident occurred after Turkish forces subjected parts of Afrin to a heavy bombardment. 

The local Syria-based Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reported that just after midnight Tuesday Turkey extended its bombardment to the vicinity of the Tal Rifaat district adjacent to Afrin “and the villages of Ain Digna, Mara’anaz, Bailuniya, Shawargha, and Qal’at Shawargha, affiliated to the same district, in conjunction with the flight of drones in the sky of the occupied al-Shahba and Afrin cantons.” 

“The Turkish bombardment expanded at about one o’clock in the morning, and included the villages of Deir Jamil and Ziara, and the vicinity of the village of Aqiba in Shirawa,” the report added.

Turkey and its Syrian militia proxies invaded Afrin in early 2018 in Operation Olive Branch. The invasion displaced thousands of Kurdish civilians. Turkey and these militias have occupied it ever since, subjected it to looting and plunder, and extorted and terrorized local people there.