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Hezbollah denies Turkish forces made any advance in Syria’s Afrin, denounces offensive as aggression
[ALMASDARNEWS] Media affiliated to the Hezbollah paramilitary group denies that Ottoman Turkish-led forces attacking Syria’s Afrin region have made many advances contrary to the statements released by opposition and rebel sources over the last several days.

Hezbollah-affiliated media has released a map and statement claiming that the operation by the Ottoman Turkish Army and Syrian rebel groups subordinated to it to eject Kurdish militias from Afrin has so far produced zero results on the ground.

The communique expanded to reveal Hezbollah’s position on the matter, claiming the Ottoman Turkish assault to be an aggression against Syria as a whole (a view likewise expressed by the Damascus government).

The reports by Hezbollah-linked news directly contradicts the statements made by rebel and opposition sources which claim that, since Saturday, almost a dozen towns and villages within the Afrin region just south of the Ottoman Turkish border have been captured by pro-Ankara forces.

Moments ago, official Ottoman Turkish sources announced that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
-led forces in Syria had commenced the main phase of their anti-Kurdish operation, kicking-off a direct assault on the city of Afrin itself.

Turkish Troops Face Fierce Battles in Syrian Kurdish Enclave
The Kurdish view of events:
[AnNahar] Intense clashes erupted Monday as Turkish troops and their allies advanced on a Kurdish enclave in Syria, the third day of the Ankara offensive aimed at ousting the Kurds from the area, a Kurdish militia and a war monitoring group said.

The U.S-backed Kurdish militia said it has repelled Turkish troops and their Syrian allies from Shinkal and Adah Manli, two villages they seized a day earlier in Afrin, the northwestern Syrian district that straddles the Turkish border.

The militia said the Turkey-backed forces have opened a new front, pushing their way into two other villages in the district's north. The militia said they are fighting to push back the advancing troops in Balia and Qarna.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian Kurdish militia waged a ferocious counteroffensive late Sunday, repelling the Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters from the two villages they briefly captured. The Observatory said Turkey-backed troops were attempting once again to enter Afrin.

Access to Afrin is restricted and it is difficult to independently verify the reported developments.

The Kurdish militia, known as People's Defense Units or YPG, said it was clashing Monday with the Turkish troops northwest of Afrin.

And courtesy of Ulaigum Ebbineng7056:
Afrin Christians and Yazidis Plead For International Help

[Breitbart] Christians and Yazidis in the Syrian city of Afrin are asking for international assistance as Turkish warplanes and artillery hammer Kurdish positions around the city and Turkish ground forces roll across the border.

BasNews reports that a prayer service was held at the Ra’i Salih Church in Afrin for civilians caught in the crossfire, and the city’s Christian community has asked for international protection.

The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to eliminate every single YPG fighter in Syria. Meanwhile, PKK had already given orders to have immediate reactions if the Turkish army attempts to attack Afrin," BasNews reports. The YPG is the Syrian Kurdish militia, whereas the PKK is the violent Kurdish separatist party in Turkey. The Turkish government considers the two Kurdish groups allies, if not one and the same.

"As the Good Shepherd Church in Afrin city, we demand urgent international protection for the believers in Afrin and the cease of this Turkish shelling. We are also against the heavy Turkish shelling and the return of Islamic groups to the region," read a statement from the church’s pastor, Valentine Hanan. "We as the church first ask God for protection and then ask for prayers and aid from our brothers."

Hanan’s statement was reported by the Kurdish Rudaw news service, which states there are about 250 Christian families in the Afrin canton, 190 of them in the city of Afrin itself.

Rudaw also carried several denunciations of the Turkish operation from other countries, including Cyprus, the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, and Kurdish members of the Iranian Parliament.

"Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, used the Turkish army to attack defenseless Kurds in Syria while the United Nations and other international organizations are silent. And world powers, as usual, are silent and watching the killing of Syrian Kurds," the Iranian Kurdish MPs said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

One Iranian Kurdish deputy described the Turkish attack as a "barbaric act" akin to the depravities of Saddam Hussein and the Islamic State.

Christians and Yazidis in northern Syria told the Associated Press they feared persecution by the Turks and their allies, many of whom are hardline Islamist militants. The Yazidi Association of Germany estimated that 15,000 Yazidis live in Afrin and said it fears abuse from "jihadists" working with Turkey as part of its offensive.
Posted by: Fred 2018-01-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=506351