The invading Turkish army bombed the Afrin region on Friday, targeting the village of Soxanekê, which is located in the Sherawa district in south-eastern Afrin, which is not fully occupied by the Turkish state. A vineyard where workers were staying was hit in the attack which has reportedly not resulted in casualties. Reports are coming through of reconnaissance activity over Sherawa.

Earlier today, the Turkish forces and allied mercenaries shelled a post of the Syrian government troops in the village of Şêx Îsa (Ash Shaykh Isa), barely five kilometres east of the centre of Tel Rifat. Three soldiers were injured as a result of the attack, according to reports from the ground.

On the other hand, attacks by the occupation forces carried out further attacks on the centre of Tel Rifat district as well as the villages of Hirbil, Til Cican and Til Mediq in the south-east of the region. Reconnaissance flights are taking place in the skies above the region.

The formerly self-governing canton of Afrin has been occupied by Turkey since March 2018. Since the beginning of the attack two months earlier, which was contrary to international law, human rights violations and war crimes have been on the agenda in what was once the safest region in all of Syria.

In addition to a classic colonial policy, Turkey also practices a policy of ethnic cleansing, which has already driven hundreds of thousands of people from their ancestral settlement areas. The demographic shift in favour of Turkey and its Islamist invasion corps, crimes such as kidnappings, torture, extortion and murders, as well as continuous artillery attacks happen every day and with the de facto approval of the international community.

A large part of the former inhabitants of Afrin have settled in the neighbouring canton of Shehba. But even there, people are not safe from the aggression of the Turkish state and its Islamist militias.