Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage shows destroyed statues and flags being raised in the centre of Afrin

Turkish-backed forces have taken full control of the centre of the Syrian-Kurdish city of Afrin.

Fighters waved flags and tore down the statue of a legendary Kurdish figure after claiming the city centre on Sunday.

The two-month Turkish-led operation aimed to rid the border region of a Kurdish militia that Turkey considers a terrorist group.

Activists say 280 civilians have died, although this is denied by Ankara.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that "units of the Free Syrian Army... took control of the centre of Afrin this morning".

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Turkish forces and the Free Syrian Army entered Afrin on Sunday

Operations continued on Sunday to clear mines and remaining Kurdish resistance elsewhere in Afrin.

"Most of the terrorists have already fled with tails between their legs," the Turkish president said.

"In the centre of Afrin, symbols of trust and stability are waving instead of rags of terrorists."

Pictures and video footage emerged of forces tearing down a Kurdish statue with a bulldozer.

The monument depicted the blacksmith Kawa, a legendary figure for Kurds.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Syrian rebels celebrated after the statue of Kawa was brought down in the centre of Afrin

A statement on a Whatsapp group for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces called it the "first blatant violation of Kurdish people's culture and history since the takeover of Afrin".

A Turkish armed forces Twitter page posted a video of troops displaying the nation's flag in Afrin's centre.

Mohammad al-Hamadeen, spokesman for the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), said they met no resistance as they entered Afrin on three fronts.

"Maybe it will be cleared by the end of the day - it is empty of [YPG] fighters, they cleared out," he said.

Turkish military spokesman Bekir Bozdag said the campaign would continue until the area around Afrin was secure.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A short guide to the Syrian civil war

He said the YPG's "terrorism corridor" in Afrin was over.

However, in a televised statement, the co-chair of the Afrin executive council, Othman Sheikh Issa, said the war against Turkey had entered "a new stage".

Kurdish forces remained in the region and would "strike the positions of the Turkish enemy and its mercenaries at every opportunity", he said.

"Our forces all over Afrin will become a constant nightmare for them," he added.

The statement also said civilians had not fled, but were evacuated "to avoid a worse catastrophe".

Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Civilians have fled Afrin in the past few days

Will Turkey press on?

By Mark Lowen, BBC Turkey Correspondent

President Erdogan has achieved his twin objectives: to remove a key area under YPG control and to rally the vast majority of Turks behind their commander-in-chief. The jingoism here has been breathtaking. Targeting the Kurdish militants, Turkey's age-old enemy, is a rare uniting force in a polarised country. Those who have spoken out - several hundred - have been detained for "terrorism propaganda".

The question now is whether Turkey pushes on to other YPG-held areas, namely Manbij, which could put Turkish troops in direct conflict with US soldiers there who see the YPG as allies. That depends on talks between Ankara and Washington, and the sacking of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week removes an important interlocutor for Turkey.

The risk in Afrin is that many residents who will return are Kurdish and could see Turkey as the aggressor. Tearing down a Kurdish statue in the town centre doesn't augur well. Will the Afrin operation actually push more local people into the arms of the YPG?

Why has Turkey taken Afrin?

The Turkish assault on Afrin, named Operation Olive Branch, began on 20 January, with the aim of ridding the city and surrounding region of the YPG.

Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in south-eastern Turkey for three decades.

The YPG denies any direct organisational links to the PKK - an assertion backed by the US, which is allied with the YPG in the battle against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

US plans to help form a Kurdish border force set alarm bells ringing in Ankara, and prompted the launch of Operation Olive Branch.

President Erdogan vowed to "suffocate" what he called a "terror army."

Turkey also announced plans to push Kurdish forces from Manbij, another city near the border.

What is the Free Syrian Army?

Backed by Turkey, the Free Syrian Army is a rebel group operating in the north of the country.

It is helping Turkey to secure its border with Syria, and has fought against the Syrian army, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the Islamic State group.

What is happening elsewhere in Syria?

The assault in the north-west coincides with a Syrian and Russian offensive on Eastern Ghouta, an enclave near Damascus.

The Syrian army is pushing into the area with the support of Russian air strikes, and there are reports of civilian casualties.

The pro-government assault is said to have captured 80% of the enclave. Seizing it would be a major victory for President Bashar al-Assad, who reportedly visited Syrian troops in the Eastern Ghouta on Sunday.

State television broadcast images of the president in shirt and jacket surrounded by soldiers in an unspecified part of the district. </s> BEIRUT - Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies damaged and tore down a statue linked to Kurdish culture in the center of Syria's Afrin town on Sunday, a statement on a Whatsapp group run by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces said, citing the Afrin media center.



The statue was of the blacksmith Kawa, a central figure in a Kurdish legend about the new year celebration of Nawroz. The statement said this was the "first blatant violation of Kurdish people's culture and history since the takeover of Afrin."



Turkey-backed forces swept into the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin on Sunday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said. </s> A Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighter gestures after Free Syrian Army forces took control of Kafr Jana village, north of Afrin, Syria. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies seized control of the town of Jinderes on Thursday, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, giving them control of one of the largest settlements in Syria’s northwest Afrin region.

The Turkish army and its allies from Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions pushed fighters from the Syrian Kurdish YPG out of the town center on Thursday following intense clashes, it said, adding that operations to secure the area were continuing.

Air raids on the Jinderes town center had intensified after Turkish forces and the FSA captured the hill overlooking it a day earlier, Anadolu said.

Turkey and its allies have so far seized five of the seven urban centers in the Afrin region, it said.

Turkey launched its air and ground assault on Afrin, dubbed Operation Olive Branch, in January to drive out the YPG, which it sees as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged an insurgency on Turkish soil since 1984. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday the operation will be completed by May.

On Tuesday, Kurdish-allied Syrian Arab militias said they are redeploying 1,700 fighters from fronts against Islamic State to the Afrin region to help fend off the Turkish offensive.

The United States, which has infuriated Turkey with its support for the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said Turkey’s offensive on Afrin has diverted attention from the fight against Islamic State. </s> Erdogan said Turkish soldiers along with rebel factions of the Free Syrian Army took complete control of Afrin town center at 8.30 am local time.

He said mopping operations are underway and the Turkish flag has been raised in the town that sits less than 50 kilometers from the Turkish border.

"Most of the terrorists fled already," Erdogan said. "Our special forces and Free Syrian Army are clearing the remaining few terrorists and the mines that they might have left. In the center of Afrin the symbols of peace and security are flying, not the rags of a terror organization. Now the Turkish flag is flying there. The FSA flag is flying there."

Turkey launched its military offensive against US-backed Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin on January 20, supported by FSA rebel factions.

Ankara says the YPG is an extension of the PKK, a marxist Kurdish militant group that has been waging an insurgency in southeast Turkey since the 1980s. Erdogan was speaking in Canakkale at an event to mark the anniversary of battle of the 1915 Battle of Gallipoli, one of the only major victories of Ottoman forces during the First World War, and an important moment in the history of Turkish nationalism. More than 150,000 people have been displaced in the last few days from Afrin town, a senior Kurdish official and a monitoring </s> Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Sunday that Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel fighter allies have seized control of the town center of Afrin from Kurdish YPG fighters.

Erdogan said Turkish soldiers along with rebel factions of the Free Syrian Army took complete control of Afrin town center at 8.30 am local time.

He said mopping operations are underway and the Turkish flag has been raised in the town that sits less than 50 kilometers from the Turkish border.

“Most of the terrorists fled already,” Erdogan said. “Our special forces and Free Syrian Army are clearing the remaining few terrorists and the mines that they might have left. In the center of Afrin the symbols of peace and security are flying, not the rags of a terror organization. Now the Turkish flag is flying there. The FSA flag is flying there.”

Turkey launched its military offensive against US-backed Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin on January 20, supported by FSA rebel factions.

Ankara says the YPG is an extension of the PKK, a marxist Kurdish militant group that has been waging an insurgency in southeast Turkey since the 1980s.

Erdogan was speaking in Canakkale at an event to mark the anniversary of battle of the 1915 Battle of Gallipoli, one of the only major victories of Ottoman forces during the First World War, and an important moment in the history of Turkish nationalism.

More than 150,000 people have been displaced in the last few days from Afrin town, a senior Kurdish official and a monitoring group said Saturday. </s> Turkish forces and their rebel allies were in control of the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria on Sunday, AFP journalists on the ground reported.

The journalists in Afrin saw Ankara-backed Syrian Arab fighters and Turkish soldiers in every neighbourhood of the city.

Turkish flags had been raised on buildings, alongside the flags of Syrian rebel groups.

Two Turkish tanks stood outside an official building and shots of celebration were being fired into the air.

Dozens of civilians were seen leaving the centre of the city, where explosions sounded as demining operations were carried out.

There were no signs of further clashes between pro-Turkish forces and the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia group that had been in control of the city before Sunday. </s> Turkish forces and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) opposition group have captured the city centre of Afrin in Syria, which was previously controlled by Kurdish fighters, Turkish military forces and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

"The Turkish armed forces and Free Syrian Army have taken the control of Afrin's city centre," the Turkish military said in a tweet on Sunday, adding that experts were searching for landmines and other sorts of explosive traps in the area.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also announced that Turkey-backed forces took complete control of the city centre at 8:30am local time (05:00 GMT).

The armed forces shared a video in a separate tweet allegedly showing the Turkish flag hoisted in the city centre of Afrin.

Other videos and photos shared by the Turkish-backed FSA fighters on social media showed them in residential streets, making victory signs and waving flags. Al Jazeera cannot independently confirm their authenticity.

Turkey - together with the FSA - in January launched a military operation into Afrin in the northwest of Syria to vanquish the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection (YPG) fighters near its border.

Turkey considers the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria and its armed wing YPG to be "terrorist groups" with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK has waged a decades-long armed fight against the Turkish state that has killed tens of thousands of people.

The PYD/YPG has come to control large swaths of northern Syria, including Afrin, in the course of the Syrian war, particularly through fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in an US-backed umbrella organisation named Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The US support for SDF has infuriated Turkey and created the ongoing diplomatic crisis between the two NATO allies. </s> ISTANBUL/BEIRUT – Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies swept into the north-western Syrian town of Afrin on Sunday, raising their flags in the town centre and declaring full control after an eight-week campaign to drive out Kurdish YPG forces.

A spokesman for the rebel fighters said they entered Afrin before dawn, meeting no resistance. A war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said pockets of YPG fighters defied orders to withdraw, but Turkish forces were in control.

The fight for Afrin, a once-stable pocket of northwest Syria, has opened a new front in Syria’s multi-sided civil war and highlighted the ever-greater role of foreign powers such as Turkey in the seven-year-old conflict.

Ankara says Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters are an extension of a militant group waging an insurgency inside Turkey, and vowed to crush what it described as a “terror corridor” of YPG-controlled territory along Turkey’s southern border with Syria.

It has threatened to extend the Afrin offensive to another Kurdish-controlled region further east where US forces are stationed alongside the YPG, Washington’s ally against Islamic State in Syria.

“Afrin city centre is under control as of 8:30 this morning,” Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told a rally commemorating the World War One Gallipoli campaign, adding that Turkish and Free Syrian Army flags had been raised in the town centre.

“Most of the terrorists have already fled with tails between their legs. Our special forces and members of the Free Syrian Army are cleaning the remains and the traps they left behind,” Erdogan said. “In the centre of Afrin, symbols of trust and stability are waving instead of rags of terrorists.”

An official from the local Kurdish authority raised the prospect of a guerrilla campaign against Turkey, saying Kurdish forces were still present across the Afrin region and would “strike the positions of the Turkish enemy and its mercenaries at every opportunity.”

“Our forces all over Afrin will become a constant nightmare for them,” Othman Sheikh Issa, co-chair of the Afrin executive council, said in a televised statement.

A WhatsApp group run by the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces said Turkish and Syrian rebel troops tore down a statue in Afrin, in what it called a “blatant violation of Kurdish people’s culture and history”.

In Turkey, dozens of pro-Kurdish and leftist groups appealed to world powers to press for the Turkish and Syrian rebel forces to withdraw from Afrin and avoid a “human tragedy”.

Free Syrian Army spokesman Mohammad al-Hamadeen said the fighters entered the town from the north, east and west. Kurdish forces had pulled back to Syrian government-controlled areas around the city of Aleppo, or to the Kurdish-held region east of the Euphrates river, he said.

“Maybe (Afrin) will be cleared by the end of the day — it’s empty of fighters, they cleared out,” Hamadeen told Reuters.

Turkey’s armed forces said that troops were combing the streets for mines and improvised explosive devices.

Government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said the military campaign would continue to secure areas around Afrin and make sure food and medicine were available.

“We have more to do. But the project of building a terrorism corridor and building a terrorist state is over,” he said.

The World Food Programme said it was distributing food to 25,000 people in the nearby towns of Nubl and Zahra, including people just arriving from Afrin.

More than 150,000 people fled Afrin in recent days, the Syrian Observatory said, as Turkey pressed on with its campaign despite a UN Security Council call for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria.

Ankara said the demand did not apply to Afrin, but its operation has faced criticism in the West.

France’s foreign minister said Turkey’s concerns for its border security did not justify “the deep incursion of Turkish troops in the Afrin zone”, which could also weaken international action against remaining Islamic State fighters in Syria.

France, like the United States, has given arms and training to a YPG-led militia in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, and also has dozens of special forces personnel based in the region. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — A Syria war monitoring group says Turkish-allied militiamen are looting the northern Syrian town of Afrin after the Turkish military and allied Syrian fighters seized control of it.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday the looting began on Sunday, after the Turkish and allied Syrian forces marched into the town center and raised their flags there — nearly two months after the offensive on the Kurdish enclave started.

The troops faced little resistance from the Kurdish militia, which withdrew, vowing a “new phase” of guerrilla tactics against Turkish troops and their allied fighters.

The Observatory, which monitors Syria’s war through a network of activists on the ground, described extensive looting of shops, homes and cars in Afrin.

It’s unclear what Turkey plans after the capture of Afrin.
The Turkish Army and Free Syrian Army seize the Kurdish stronghold of Afrin from the YPG in northern Syria, raising the Turkish flag above the city centre. A statue of the Kurdish legendary figure, Kaveh the Blacksmith, is bulldozed by Turkish-backed forces.