The Press Office of People’s Defense Units (YPG) released the balance sheet of resistance for 2018.

Full text of the YPG statement is as follows;

“People of Kurdistan, who have been fighting the good fight to protect basic values of humanity and particularly of the peoples of middle east, have again spearheaded the fight against evil in form of ISIS recently. Our people and fighters have fought have been fighting against ISIS barbarism and Turkish invasion and putting up a legendary resistance.

Our struggle today has turned into a legendary resistance which includes hundreds of internationalist fighters from all over the world and is ensuring co-existence of peoples in North Syria and Rojava Kurdistan. 2018 has become a year in which our struggle made a great progress and came to a prominence in region. At a time ISIS is on the brink of collapse, our people had to fight against invasion attempts by Turkey. The outcome of the battles and resistance by our fighters throughout the year is s follows;

1- Outcome of the resistance of Afrin which began on January 20 and ended in March 18

Airstrikes: 1098

Heavy weapons attacks: between 3577 and 4000

Engagement: 900

Operations with unclear results: 176

Destroyed military vehicles and aircrafts: 2 combat helicopters, 2 unmanned aerial vehicles, 122 military vehicles, 2 car bombs, 1 motorcycle

Damaged military vehicles: 32 (tanks, APCs, armoured vehicles)

Civilians killed: 224 (51 children, 42 women)

Civilians injured: 650 (87 children, 93 women)

Killed Turkish soldiers and mercenaries: 2422

544 fighters were martyred during the resistance as result of intense airstrikes and engagements with the occupying forces.

2- Outcome of the second phase of resistance of Afrin, which began on March 18, is as follows

Our units in Afrin have carried out 147 operations against Turkish invasion army and its jihadist proxies. As result of assassination, raid, ambush and bombing actions;

- 350 terrorists have been killed (65 Turkish soldiers and 258 mercenaries)

- 18 AK-47, 1 MG-3 machine gun, 2 pistols along with a large amount of ammunition have been captured

- The results of 5 operations couldn’t be clarified

- 36 military vehicles, 1 APC, 1 pick-up, 3 motorcycles, 1 HQ and T55 tank were destroyed; 4 military vehicles have been damaged

- Turkish invasion army has carried out large scale combing operations with the participation of hundreds of its mercenaries and under protection of air cover in Afrin 13 times. All of the operations have been retreated without achieving any results.

- Since March 18, 56 fighters, including 16 fighters of YPJ, were martyred in airstrikes. 1 of our fighters was injured and another fighter was captured in a state of being heavily injured.

3- During 2018, occupying Turkish army attacked the bases and positions of our fighters and civilian settlements, violating the borders.

- Turkish invasion army has attacked positions of our fighters and civilian settlements 53 times

- 13 civilians (3 children) were injured, 2 civilians (1 child) were killed in the attacks.

- 2 Sanadid forces fighters, 2 Self Defense forces fighters and 2 journalists were injured.

- An UAV of Turkish army was captured by our fighters in Kobani.

- Our forces retaliated to all the attacks according to engagement rules and legitimate self defense. 2 soldiers were killed in operations by our forces.

4- During 2018, counter-terrorism units (YAT) have carried out 45 operations against ISIS and other sleeper cells across Rojava and northern Syria. Special Operation Teams have also conducted 590 operations.

- 107 ISIS terrorists including 5 foreigners were captured in the operations

- 204 ISIS members, including 2 leaders and 31 terrorists of other sleeper cells that were preparing for attacks were killed.

- 161 ISIS members were injured

- 55 attacks were foiled

- 6 Yazidi women and a child were rescued from ISIS

- 25 vehicles and a motorcycle were destroyed, 8 vehicles were damaged

- Our units have confiscated a large amount of explosive, 1345 mines, 2 car bombs, 35 missiles, 3 tank shells, 11 mortars and their shells, 126 SPG-9 shells, 575 AK-47, 3 LAV weapons and 2 rockets, 3 12.7mm DShK machine guns, 6 14.5mm ZPU machine guns, M2 Browning ammunition, 6 A4, 40 BKC, 12 Dragunov sbiper rifles, 15 G3 rifles, 17 M16 rifles, 27 RPG and 267 warheads, 1004 grenades, 121 suicide vests, 7 binoculars, 11 pistols and their ammunition, 4 radio devices, 19 cell phones.

5- 2018 has been a long year with resistance and fierce battles across Rojava and northern Syria. 894 fighters were martyred during 2018; 600 in Afrin, 201 during operation Jazeera Storm, 61 as result of traffic and other accidents, 20 as result of illness, 7 during mine clearing operations in Raqqa and due to attacks by Turkish invasion army on borders 5 of our comrades were martyred.”