Syria | EU criticizes Turkey’s offensive in Afrin

Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army soldiers celebrate around a statue of Kawa, a mythology figure in Kurdish culture, after they have destroyed it in Afrin, northwestern Syria

The European Union’s top diplomat criticized Turkey yesterday over its military offensive in a northern Syrian town, calling on Ankara to ensure that fighting eases in the conflict-torn country.

The appeal came as looting was widely reported in the town captured a day earlier by Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters, according to residents and monitors. Meanwhile, Turkey’s state-run news agency said 11 people — seven civilians and four Turkish-
backed Syrian fighters — were killed in an explosion in a building in Afrin town center as it was being cleared of booby traps. Anadolu News agency said the bomb was reportedly left by Syrian Kurdish fighters.

On Sunday, Turkish troops and Syrian opposition fighters allied with Ankara marched into Afrin, nearly two months after Turkey began its offensive on the enclave. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish militia in Afrin a “terrorist” group and an extension of its own Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.

“I am worried about this,” Mogherini told reporters in Brussels yesterda, in reference to Turkey’s offensive in Afrin. She said that international efforts in Syria are supposed to be “aiming at de-escalating the military activities and not escalating them.”

Turkey views the local Kurdish militia, the People’s Defense Units or YPG, as a threat to its national security and has vowed to push it out of the district and away from its borders. The YPG retreated amid the swift Turkish offensive on Afrin’s town center, and vowed to start a “new phase” of fighting against the Turkish troops and allied fighters.

Meanwhile, Afrin residents and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported widespread looting and pillaging soon after Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters marched into the town center. The Observatory said the pillaging began on Sunday.

Images have emerged of torched stores, men in uniforms and others in civilian clothes walking out of homes with full loads of bales, while others were seen driving away with tractors and agriculture supplies.

A Syrian commander with the Free Syrian Army, which captured the district along with Turkish forces, blamed “thieves” for the looting. Moataz Raslan, a commander with the FSA, said a unit for protection of property has been formed to prevent further theft.

Thousands of Afrin residents, many of whom had earlier fled from the villages near the border with Turkey to the town center, streamed out of Afrin before the Turkish troops entered. Lines of vehicles and civilians on foot headed toward Syrian government-controlled areas to the south or other Kurdish-controlled areas.AP