Syrian Democratic Forces General Command released a statement about the latest situation in the Turkish state’s invasion operation against Afrin Canton of Rojava.

Full text of the statement is as follows;

“Turkey tries to realize its plans on the region by deceiving the peoples of the region. Turkish occupation army, with the mercenaries it has long been training in Turkey, wants to sow the seeds of hostility between Arab and Kurdish entities of Afrin.

Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries tried to invade parts of Afrin under the cover of Turkish air force, tanks and artillery shelling. Our forces have been carrying out a special operation on Turkish troops and terrorists in the last few hours. As the operation and clashes continue heavily, current results are as following;

The operation has been taking place in five different areas. Adah Manli, Shadia and Surka villages of Raju district and Shinkal village of Bulbul district have been fully cleared off Turkish troops and the mercenaries. Intense clashes at some parts of the border area are continuing. Turkish occupation army and its mercenaries’ attempts to enter Afrin once again failed.

Turkish occupation army, who failed advance into Afrin on the ground, once again targeted civilians with multiple airstrikes. The bombardment carried out on Rubar IDP camp, Cilbir village of Sherawa district and the area surrounding Afrin city center caused many civilian deaths.

Turkish occupation army attacks Reyhanli district of Hatay city itself only to legitimate the ongoing massacre and blames our forces for this. We once again stress that we have nothing to do in shelling civilian settlements. We never target the territory outside of our borders.

We once again stress that the social media rumors and the allegations delivered by some media outlets should not be trusted unless officially confirmed by General Command statements. SDF General Command will keep the public up to date about the results of the battle and resistance.

During the clashes that are still going on, a number of Turkish soldiers and its mercenaries were killed. Detailed statement on the results of the attacks and our resistance is going to be issued later.”