Afrin offensive (January–March 2018)
Military operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Free Syrian Army / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Afrin offensive (January–March 2018) was a military operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces and the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army against the Syrian Democratic Forces in Afrin District in northwestern Syria as the initial phase of Operation Olive Branch. At the end of military operations, the UN had registered 150,000 Kurdish refugees in camps in the area of Tel Rifaat;[68] the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) estimated that 300,000 people had been expelled in total.[69] By May, SOHR estimated that 40,000 settlers had been moved into Afrin, some of them Arabs displaced from eastern Ghouta, but mostly families of the mixed Arab and Syrian Turkmen militias.[70]
Afrin offensive (January–March 2018) | |||||||
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Part of Operation Olive Branch, the Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War, and the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (2015–present) | |||||||
![]() Animated map of the offensive Turkish-backed opposition control SDF control Syrian Army control Joint Syrian Army and SDF control For a more detailed, up-to-date, interactive map, see here. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Supported by: ![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
![]() ![]() (Sultan Murad Division top commander) ![]() ![]() (Second Corps and Sultan Murad Division commander) ![]() (Hamza Division top commander) ![]() (Levant Front commander) ![]() ![]() (Sham Legion commander, until 7 February[24]) ![]() (First Legion commander) ![]() (Samarkand Brigade field commander) |
![]() ![]() (YPG and SDF Afrin commander) ![]() ![]() (YPJ commander) ![]() ![]() (YPJ commander) ![]() ![]() (Army of Revolutionaries commander) ![]() ![]() (Northern Democratic Brigade commander) ![]() ![]() (MLKP commander) ![]() ![]() (NDF commander)[35] ![]() ![]() (NDF commander)[36] ![]() ![]() (NDF commander) | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
See order of battle | See order of battle | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Equipment
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
Per SOHR:[52] Per SDF: Per Turkey: ![]() |
Per SOHR:[52] Per SDF: Per Turkey: ![]() | ||||||
289–500 civilians killed in Syria (per SOHR & SDF)[b][52][57] 7–9 civilians killed in Turkey[60][61] (2 Syrians)[62] | |||||||
a The TAF announced the start of Operation Olive Branch on 20 January,[63] while the Turkish Defence Minister stated it "de facto started with cross-border shelling" the day before[64] when one additional SDF fighter was killed.[65] |