Flashpoints

Turkey tightens grip on Syrian Kurdish enclave

March 3, 2018
A picture taken on March 2, 2018, shows a Turkish army Black Hawk helicopter flying towards the village of Al-Maabatli in the Afrin region in the northwestern Aleppo province countryside as part of the ongoing offensive. (Bakr Alkasem/AFP/Getty Images)

BEIRUT — Turkey’s prime minister says Turkish troops have captured a strategic village in the Kurdish-held enclave in northwestern Syria, tightening the grip on the area in the sixth week of its offensive on the area.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says Turkish soldiers cleared Rajo in Afrin district of “terrorists.” He says the Kurdish fighters have been pushed back from the border with Turkey and are now surrounded in Afrin.

Yildirim was speaking at a rally in the central Konya province.

This photo provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows members of the Syrian Civil Defense group and civilians gathering to help survivors from a street attacked by airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, Friday, March. 2, 2018. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP)
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fierce clashes were still being reported in Rajo.

Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) military police members demonstrate with their flags in the Kurdish town of Al-Muabbadah in the northeastern part of Hassakah province on February 24, 2018, denouncing the Turkish military operation against YPG forces in the northwestern Kurdish enclave of Afrin. (Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images)
Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) military police members demonstrate with their flags in the Kurdish town of Al-Muabbadah in the northeastern part of Hassakah province on February 24, 2018, denouncing the Turkish military operation against YPG forces in the northwestern Kurdish enclave of Afrin. (Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images)

If confirmed, Rajo would be the largest center in Afrin to be captured since the Turkish offensive began on Jan.20.

Turkey says it wants to oust the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, from Afrin. It considers the group an extension of a Kurdish insurgency within its own borders.

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