Turkish commandos killed eight elements from the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the largest component of the US-backed Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the defense ministry said in a statement on Friday.
The elements were attempting to strike areas controlled by Turkish forces in the Operation Peace Spring area in northeastern Syria, the statement added.
The 2019 Turkish offensive into northeastern Syria, code-named Operation Peace Spring by Ankara, was a cross-border military operation conducted by the Turkish military and the Syrian National Army against the SDF and later the Syrian army in northern Syria and to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees.
It was ended a few days after its launch by understandings between the US and Russia. Those understandings included withdrawing SDF units 30 kilometers away from the border with Turkey.
Meanwhile, Turkish forces stationed in Azaz, in Aleppo’s northern countryside, launched a missile attack on Shawargha and Malikia towns in Sharan district in the countryside of Afrin.
The forces brought in large cement blocks to Azaz, preparing to construct a wall of two kilometers long and four meters high from the national hospital on the outskirts of Azaz city to Al-Shatt checkpoint on Azaz-Afrin highway, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
They used large cranes and are conducting the construction work at night, fearing attacks by Kurdish forces that are deployed in Maranaz, Ain Daqnah and al-Malikiyyah villages in the northern countryside of Aleppo, nearly 500 meters away from the highway between Azaz and Afrin.
