Turkey turned up the heat on Syria's Afrin Wednesday, launching deadly strikes on Damascus loyalists deployed around the Kurdish enclave and closing in on its main city. The development - which could redraw the map of northern Syria as the conflict enters its eighth year - came as Russian-backed regime forces pounded shrinking rebel pockets in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, killing 25 civilians.
Afrin's encirclement "will have been completed by the evening", a Turkish presidency source said Wednesday, toning down President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's earlier statement saying it would fall by evening. Afrin city lies in the heart of a Kurdish-majority enclave against which neighbouring Turkey launched a deadly ground and air offensive on January 20.
Before the retraction, Erdogan had told supporters in Ankara he hoped "Afrin will, God willing, have completely fallen by the evening." A top official in the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which controls Afrin, laughed off the claim.
"It sounds like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is daydreaming when he says Afrin will fall tonight," Redur Khalil told AFP. Turkish and allied forces have almost encircled Afrin city, from which thousands started fleeing when it became apparent Ankara's goal was nothing short of full capture.
On Wednesday, Turkish bombing raids killed 10 fighters loyal to the regime, which last month deployed pro-government forces after the Kurds asked for help. "The air strikes targeted a checkpoint on the only road leading from Afrin to regime-controlled territory to the southeast," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Displaced families have swelled the city's population to around 350,000, and officials feared a humanitarian crisis should Turkish forces draw closer.
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