Afrin Liberation Forces announced on Sunday that five Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others injured in a sabotage operation in occupied Afrin. HRE said that the "retaliatory strike" was carried out as an act of revenge against the desecration of graves of martyrs.

The target of the sabotage was an armored personnel carrier of the BMC Kirpi (tr. hedgehog) type, which was moving in the Shera district on the road between the towns of Mereskê and Meryeminê. The previously placed explosive device was detonated by remote detonation, as can also be seen on a video published by ANHA. "This action was carried out in retaliation for the inhumane attacks of the Turkish occupying state against our martyrs in Afrin," the statement by HRE said.

Grave desecration as war propaganda

In mid-July, the Turkish occupation forces destroyed the Şehîd (Martyr) Avesta cemetery in the center of Afrin and removed the dead from the graves. The people buried there were civilians and fighters from the YPG, YPJ and SDF, who defended Afrin to the last moment during the 2018 war of aggression. The Turkish government declared the martyrs as "victims of the YPG/PKK" who were executed and buried in a mass grave. Various institutions in northern and eastern Syria have rejected the claims from Ankara as propaganda lies and backed up with photos as well as documents that it was a cemetery.