Turkey, allies take full control of Afrin region

Syrians await new evacuations from Ghouta

FE Team | Published: March 26, 2018 00:41:51

ARBIN, Mar 25 (Agencies): Turkey's military and its Syrian rebel allies have taken full control of northwest Syria's Afrin region, a Turkish army source said on Saturday, as aid workers distributed food to people in the area.
Turkish forces and the Syrian fighters swept into the main Afrin town last Sunday after an eight-week campaign to drive out the Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara regards as a terrorist group.
A military source told Reuters the last remaining villages had been seized and control established overnight.
"Control has been completely achieved in the Afrin region and search operations are continuing so that local people can return safely to their houses," the source said.
State-run Anadolu news agency carried a similar report.
In Afrin, people queued to receive hot food which was being distributed by the Turkish Red Crescent while Turkish soldiers kept security and armoured vehicles moved along the streets.
Meanwhile, Residents of a ravaged pocket of Syria's Eastern Ghouta were preparing Sunday for a new round of evacuations from the rebel enclave near Damascus, AFP's correspondent said.
Hundreds of rebels, their relatives and other civilians left a string of towns late Saturday after Faylaq al-Rahman, the rebel faction that controls the area around Arbin, agreed to a negotiated withdrawal.
The deal is expected to see some 7,000 people bussed from Arbin and Zamalka towns and the district of Jobar to a rebel-dominated part of northern Syria.