Five Turkish military serivcemen have been killed in clashes with Kurdish YPG/YPJ forces in the Syrian area of Afrin since the start of Ankara’s Operation Olive Branch there, Turkey’s Defense Miniser Nurettin Canikli said on January 30.
He added that 24 members of the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) have been also killed.
Turkish defense minister: We have 29 martyrs, 5 from Turkish army, 24 from Free Syrian Army since start of Afrin operation pic.twitter.com/hBy5A22eTB
— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) 30 January 2018
Earlier on January 30, the Turkish General Staff said that 649 ‘terrorists’ have been ‘neutralized’ in the Afrin area so far.
While the number of the YPH/YPJ casualties provided by the Turkish military clearly look overestimated, the number of killed FSA members provided by the defense minsiter looks underestimated.
