\n Turkey vowed Monday to expand its operation in northern Syria to other Kurdish-held areas after its troops and allied forces seized control of the city of Afrin in a major blow to the Kurds.\n<\/p>\n
\n A day after Turkish-led forces entered the city virtually unopposed, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the fight would now be taken to other Kurdish areas of northern Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We will continue this process until we entirely eliminate this corridor, including in Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli,\" said the Turkish leader, in a characteristically bullish mood.\n<\/p>\n
\n Syria's civil war entered its eighth year this week with heavy fighting on two fronts -- around Afrin and in the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.\n<\/p>\n
\n In Afrin, the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) could do little when Syrian Arab fighters backed by NATO's second-largest army thrust into the city on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thousands fled as the rebels, mostly fighters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, celebrated their victory by destroying the statue of Kurdish hero Kawa.\n<\/p>\n
\n They looted shops and homes, with an AFP reporter saying fighters manning checkpoints on Monday were still joking about their spoils.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rebels' command on Monday announced it had arrested several people involved in the looting, and was setting up checkpoints around the city to locate any stolen goods.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Damascus slams Afrin takeover -\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the United Nations, some 98,000 people have displaced by fighting in Afrin, and the humanitarian situation remained dire.\n<\/p>\n
\n The International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday called for access to those displaced to provide lifesaving aid.\n<\/p>\n
\n The displacement drew has also sparked concern from the US, with State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert saying a majority of the city's population had fled.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We are also concerned over reports of looting inside the city of Afrin. We have repeatedly expressed our serious concern to Turkish officials regarding the situation in Afrin,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Turkey's takeover of Afrin also prompted outrage from Syria's foreign ministry on Monday, who slammed it as \"illegitimate.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Syria condemns the Turkish occupation of Afrin and the crimes it is committing there, and demands the invading forces immediately withdraw from the Syrian territory they occupied,\" the ministry said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pro-government militiamen had joined the fight to defend Afrin, but Turkish bombing raids have killed dozens of them.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ankara launched its operation on January 20, saying it was aiming to secure the country's north to allow the three million Syrian refugees on Turkish soil to return.\n<\/p>\n
\n But it is also ferociously opposed to the YPG and wants to block the Kurdish militia from consolidating a statelet along Turkey's southern border.\n<\/p>\n
\n For weeks, Erdogan shrugged off calls from world powers to de-escalate, and the capture of Afrin marks a major success for him.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Afrin is one of the most strategic areas of northwest Syria. It is a piece of real estate that anchors Turkey's presence for many years to come,\" said Nicholas Heras at the Center for a New American Security.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Spectators' to war crimes -\n<\/p>\n
\n Bitterness is running high among the Kurds, who feel poorly rewarded by the international community for sacrifices they made when battling the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"What is happening in Afrin is ethnic cleansing and the great powers are spectators,\" said Khaled Issa, a representative of Syrian Kurdish authorities in Paris.\n<\/p>\n
\n More than 1,500 Kurdish fighters had been killed in the two-month assault, according to a war monitor, including several foreign fighters.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Monday, the Women's Protection Units (YPJ), the all-female branch of the YPG, announced that British member Anna Campbell was killed last week fighting in Afrin.\n<\/p>\n
\n The YPG has vowed to fight back to reclaim the city, but their chances look slim.\n<\/p>\n
\n Syria's conflict started seven years ago this month with peaceful protests, but a crackdown by Assad's forces paved the way for a complex war that has since killed at least 350,000.\n<\/p>\n
\n After initially losing swathes of the country, Assad has regained the upper hand with the help of his main backer Russian President Vladimir Putin, who secured a fourth term on Sunday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Syrian troops are now looking to finish off rebels on the outskirts of the capital with a month-long Russian-backed offensive on the suburb of Eastern Ghouta.\n<\/p>\n
\n They are now in control of more than 80 percent of the one-time rebel bastion, and the remaining territory has been split into three pockets.\n<\/p>\n
\n At least 26 civilians were killed in bombing raids across the enclaves on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.\n<\/p>\n
\n Deadly strikes hit Ghouta's largest town of Douma, which had seen a week-long lull in shelling after talks between rebels and Russia.\n<\/p>\n
\n The latest casualties came as the regime allowed some medical evacuations from the area, according to an AFP correspondent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey vowed Monday to expand its operation in northern Syria to other Kurdish-held areas after its troops and allied forces seized control of the city of Afrin in a major blow to the Kurds. A day after Turkish-led forces entered the city virtually unopposed, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the fight would now be taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-36760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n