Turkish tanks are parked near the Syrian border at Hassa, in Hatay province on January 24, 2018, as part of the operation "Olive Branch", launched a few days ago. (AFP PHOTO)
DAMASCUS, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish military campaign on the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria has killed and wounded 141 civilians since it started last Saturday, state news agency SANA reported on Thursday.
It came amid unconfirmed reports about a possible understanding between the Kurdish fighters and the Syrian army for handing Afrin over to the Syrian army to confront the Turkish campaign.
The Turkish shelling by assorted weaponry has targeted residential areas in Afrin, 63 km north of Aleppo province in northern Syria, leaving civilian casualties and big property losses, said SANA.
Last Saturday, the Turkish forces and their allies of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels unleashed a wide-scale offensive to eliminate the Kurdish fighters of the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from Afrin enclave near Turkey.
Heavy shelling and airstrikes targeted Afrin with the Turkish government vowing to continue the offensive until eradicating the Kurdish fighters along its southern border with Syria.
The Syrian government has condemned the attack, saying it represents an encroachment upon the Syrian sovereignty.
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said the Syrian air defenses have fully recovered, adding that they would respond to any Turkish warplane targeting Afrin.
However, observers believe that the threat of military response by Syria was a message to the Kurdish fighters in Afrin that if the area was handed over to the Syrian government, the Syrian forces would respond to the Turkish attack as mentioned by Mekdad.
Ahead of the Turkish offensive, there was a meeting between the Russian and representatives of the Kurdish fighters, during which the Russians proposed the entry of the Syrian army to Afrin to pull the pretext of attacking the Kurdish fighters by Turkey, a demand that was reportedly refused by the Kurds, who said they would defend the areas they control against the Turkish attack.
But earlier in the day, the pro-government al-Watan newspaper cited what it called "unconfirmed reports" as suggesting that there is a Kurdish tendency to agree with the Syrian government on the entry of the Syrian army to Afrin.
The paper said that the YPG has reportedly welcomed the entry of the Syrian army to Afrin under a deal with the Syrian government, a claim that hasn't been publicly declared by the YPG.
Meanwhile, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV cited an unnamed Kurdish source in the YPG as saying that his forces are not aiming to create a Kurdish state in Syria and that the Kurdish-held areas are part of the Syrian national fabric, saying his group wants to be a part of the future solution to the country's crisis.
The Kurdish source, meanwhile, denied claims that the YPG is part of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, expressing astonishment about the withdrawal of the Russian forces from Afrin ahead of the Turkish attack.
But the situation is confusing as some Lebanese news reports cited another source from the SDF as denying reaching a deal with the Syrian government about the Syrian forces' entry to Afrin, saying that there are ongoing negotiations between his group as well as Russia and the United States.
The SDF source made it clear that if an agreement was reached with the government, his group will publically declare it.
Back to the al-Watan newspaper, its reports said that the almost week-long offensive has failed to establish real achievements in terms of the Turkish purpose to defeat the Kurdish fighters and Afrin and prepare the area to be a safe zone for Syrian refugees.
The paper said that following the failure of the Turkish campaign so far, Turkish military buildup was noticed on the Turkish side of the borders, adding that Washington complicity with Turkey has become clear in terms of supporting the buffer zones, or safe zones, in northern Syria.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has confirmed U.S. backing for the establishment of a 30-kilometer Turkish "safe zone" within northern Syria.
Meanwhile, al-Watan cited a Kurdish source in the YPG as saying that his group is undertaking the guerrilla warfare style in confronting the Turkish incursion, noting that "what we are losing in the morning due to the intensified shelling and airstrikes, we are restoring in the evening because the YPG knows the geography of the area there very well."
