Clashes in Syria’s Afrin countryside leave HTS casualties
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – On Friday evening, three militants of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) were killed and nine others were wounded in clashes with Turkish-backed Third Legion in the village of Kafr Janneh in the countryside of the city of Afrin.
An exclusive source told North Press a car belonging to the HTS arrived in Afrin Hospital picking wounded and dead due to the clashes in Kafr Janneh north of Aleppo.
The source added that a military group of the HTS besieged the hospital and entered three killed militants and nine wounded from the clashes in Kafr Janneh.
This coincided with passage of a Turkish patrol, including tanks, across neighborhoods of Afrin for the first time, according to the source.
A state of military alert prevailed in a Turkish base in Kafr Janneh after news about casualties in the base in tandem with Turkish reconnaissance flight over the region, the source added.
For the second successive day, Kafr Janneh has been witnessing fierce clashes between HTS and the Third Legion affiliated with Syrian National Army (SNA).
Afrin, a Kurdish city in the north of Aleppo, has been under the occupation of Turkey since March 2018 following a military operation called “Olive Branch” which resulted in the displacement of about 300.000 people of the original inhabitants of the city and its countryside.