Two killed in YPG attack on Turkish-backed forces in Afrin

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The People’s Protection Units (YPG) on Saturday announced they killed two fighters of a Turkish-backed group in the Mabata district of Afrin as part of their resistance against the Turkish occupation.

Although Kurds lost Afrin to Turkey and allied Syrian militias in March, the YPG continues to target rebel forces settled by Ankara in the embattled city.

The YPG said in a statement that it carried out operations on Sept. 7 near the Omera village of Afrin’s Mabata district, “targeting a group of mercenaries of the Levant Front (Jabhat al-Shamiya).”

“As a result of the operation, two mercenaries were killed, and one was wounded,” the statement said.

Also on Friday, the YPG said it had killed two fighters from the Turkish-backed Sultan Murad Division, a group that participated in the occupation of Afrin.

According to Suad Hisso, the co-head of the Yezidi Union of Afrin, the YPG attacks have a psychological effect on people settled by Turkey in Afrin.

“People [settlers] are fleeing away from Afrin. They are afraid since the comrades ambush them [Islamist groups] always,” she said.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Research Fellow who specializes in Syria at the Forum for Regional Thinking, an Israeli think-tank, told Kurdistan 24 the YPG is determined to continue its attacks across Afrin.

“As long as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army factions remain in control, these attacks will likely persist,” she stated.

“The forces controlling Afrin are currently incapable of clamping down and preventing these attacks, despite — and possibly due to — heavy-handed security measures,” Tsurkov said. 

“The typical response after these attacks are random arrests of Kurds who often seem to lack any clear connection to the YPG. We should expect more of these abuses following this particularly deadly attack.”

In the past week, the YPG has carried out multiple attacks, killing several Turkish-backed rebels, including a division commander, sparking outrage among rebel fighters. 

One rebel commander has called for collective punishment of Kurds after fighters were killed in an attack by Kurdish forces last Monday.

Nicholas A. Heras, a Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Kurdistan 24 that Turkey’s dependence on Syrian rebel groups to manage occupied Afrin “is operating on a hope and a prayer.”

“The Syrian rebels running Afrin are mercenaries with little local legitimacy,” he noted.

According to Heras, the only way Turkey and its Syrian rebel proxies will gain legitimacy in Afrin “is to irreversibly change the population of Afrin by forcibly expelling Kurds.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany