Turkish forces continue to target Aleppo northern countryside
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Turkish forces and the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, known as Syrian National Army (SNA), renewed on Sunday the shelling of a village in the northern countryside of Aleppo, where Afrin IDPs have taken shelter since 2018, which caused damage to wheat crops.
The vicinity of the village of Tel Qarah was hit by two artillery shells around 7 am, which caused a state of panic among the resident of the village, a local source told north press.
There are about 40 villages and five camps in Aleppo northern countryside, known as Shahba areas, which house the Afrin IDPs who fled their homes following a Turkish incursion in 2018.
On May 13, the Turkish forces fired artillery shells on the villages of Herbel, Sheikh Issa, Smouqa, Shahba Dam, Kafr Naya, Shaala, al-Hissya, Joba, Tat Marash, Aqiba, Ibbin and Ziyara. The shelling caused material losses.
In 2018, the Turkish forces and the SNA factions invaded and then occupied Afrin. They claimed that there were active PKK members in Afrin, and that they needed to push them out in order to maintain Turkey’s national security. The operation, which was called “Olive Branch,” led to the displacement of about 300,000 original Kurdish inhabitants of Afrin.