ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Thousands of displaced Syrians sheltering in Tal Rifaat are unable to return to areas in Afrin now under the control of Turkey, according to a UK-based conflict monitor.
IDPs say fighters loyal to Ankara are using checkpoints to prevent returns to their homes in the Afrin area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday. The IDPs were described as families who were turned back to their camps in the northern Aleppo countryside.
The UN estimates 50,000 Syrians are displaced in Tal Rifaat and 183,500 in total after Turkey seized Kurdish-controlled Afrin city on March 18.
Menagh airbase in Tal Rifaat is under the control of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Wednesday. The agency called the base critical and important for Turkey’s operation.
Turkey claimed on Tuesday it had begun an operation to take Tal Rifaat. It followed a reported agreement on Monday night between Russia and Turkey to allow Ankara’s army to take the town.
The UN resident humanitarian coordinator in Syria confirmed “very close coordination” between the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian government, while at a press conference in Damascus on Wednesday, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported.
However, $150 million dollars is still needed to provide aid for Afrin and other areas.
Syrian officials have called for Turkey to withdraw “its invading forces from Syria,” SANA had reported.
Turkey says its operation is to provide border security, claiming the YPG are the Syrian offshoot of the PKK and have booby trapped Afrin.
“God willing, we will ensure this operation achieves its goal after taking control of Tal Rifaat in a short period of time,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday.
Brusk Hasaka, the spokesperson for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) — comprised mostly of the Kurdish YPG — reported deadly clashes on the Jandaris-Afrin road on Wednesday between the YPG and Turkish soldiers