Earlier in the day, the Turkish General Staff reported about five servicemen killed in Afrin operation, including two servicemen killed during the crash of a Turkish ATAK helicopter in the area.

"Two more our comrades-in-arms were killed on February 10 during Olive Branch operation, and four were injured. Eleven members of the PYD [Kurdish Democratic Union Party], the YPG [Kurdish People's Protection Units] and IS [Daesh] terrorist organizations were killed," the statement said.

Turkey has neutralized over 1,000 Kurdish militants since the start of its Afrin offensive. At least 26 Turkish servicemen were killed and over 70 were injured during the operation. Damascus has expressed its opposition to the Turkish operation in Afrin, slamming such actions as violation of Syrian sovereignty.</s>Kurds in northern Syria say Turkish bombings have barred more than 40,000 students from education as local officials in Afrin shut down schools following airstrikes in the city's countryside.

"We regrettably have decided to halt the second term of the school year due to the attacks on Afrin," Salaw Hamosharo, the spokeswoman of the Afrin Education Commission, told VOA.

"Over 300 primary, secondary and high schools have been closed down," she added.

The Turkish military denies it is hitting civilian targets and calls Kurdish accusations "disinformation campaigns" to slander its cross-border intervention.

"Religious, cultural, historical and archaeological sites, as well as public facilities, have not been chosen as targets by the Turkish Armed Forces since the very beginning of this operation," the Turkish military said in a statement posted on its Twitter account Wednesday.

The military said the offensive, code-named Operation Olive Branch, is aimed at the Kurdish militants "to protect the friendly and brotherly people of that area from the oppression of these terrorist groups."

Turkey started an air and ground offensive in northwestern Syria, in the city of Afrin, against a Kurdish group known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG. It says the operation is to protect its borders from the group, which has gained control over large swaths of land across northern Syria since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization, alleging the group is an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for decades.

But the U.S. denies those connections and sees the YPG as a key ally in the battle against the Islamic State. Washington has urged Turkey to show restraint and has warned that the assault on Afrin could hinder the war on IS.

YPG is the main fighting force of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which played a key role in the ongoing fight against the Islamic State terror group in the region.

Some NATO member states also have raised concerns over Turkey's military operation in Afrin.

Speaking on local broadcaster BFM TV on Wednesday, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the foreign minister of France, accused Turkey of violating international law and said Ankara should not worsen the conflict.

"Ensuring the security of its borders does not mean killing civilians, and that should be condemned. In a dangerous situation in Syria, [Turkey] should not add war to war," he said.

According to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based watchdog monitoring developments in Syria, fierce clashes and intensive Turkish aerial and artillery raids on Afrin have left at least 60 civilians dead and thousands more displaced.

Afrin city's General Public Hospital told VOA that 26 children have been killed and 40 others injured from the Turkish shelling.

The observatory group said Turkish shelling Wednesday damaged a school in Maydanki village and a desalination plant in the Mateen area, about nine kilometers northeast of Afrin city. It said the damage endangered access to clean water for thousands of people in the region.

Officials of the Afrin Education Commission told VOA that two schools in Maydanki, one in Rajo village and another in Jindaresse were destroyed by Turkish shelling this week.

A VOA reporter on the ground in Afrin who visited one of the destroyed schools confirmed that the building has been damaged. However, VOA could not independently confirm if the damage was from Turkish attacks.</s>Turkey has resumed air strikes in the enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, destroying more than a dozen targets and "neutralising" at least 34 rebels, the Turkish army says.

The fighters belonged to the Syrian Kurdish armed group YPG and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, according to the army.

Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported on Friday that Turkish armed forces struck 19 targets overnight, as part of its ongoing operation inside Syria.

According to Turkish media, Ankara's aerial campaign was briefly halted after Russia closed the airspace over Afrin, as a result of the downing of a Russian jet in neighbouring Idlib province.

Since the operation started in January 20, an estimated 1,062 YPG and ISIL fighters have been "neutralised", a term Turkey uses to imply that the fighters have either been killed, captured or have surrendered, according to Anadolu.

As of Sunday, at least 14 Turkish troops have also been reported killed in the fighting.

The Turkish military has said only "terror targets" are being destroyed in the operation, but Syrian Kurds said that villages full of civilians have also been repeatedly hit, with reports of more than a hundred killed.

Afrin's General Public Hospital was also quoted by Voice of America as saying that at least 26 children have been killed and 40 others injured from the Turkish strikes.

Earlier, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that between 15,000 to 30,000 civilians have been internally displaced in Afrin because of the operation.

Turkey insists that its operation in Afrin is "fully in line with international law", saying that the presence of the Syrian Kurdish YPG in the area is a "security threat" to the country.

Turkey sees the YPG - trained, armed and supported by the US to fight against ISIL - as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a bloody, decades-long uprising in the country.

Meanwhile, Oleg Syromolotov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, said on Thursday that the developments in Afrin have been "provoked" by the action of the US, accusing Washington of planning to supply "more weapons" to US-allied groups within Syria.</s>ISTANBUL, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria's Afrin region, the army said on Friday, and a monitoring group reported that seven fighters and two civilians were killed in strikes.

The overnight attacks came after a lull in Turkish air strikes following the shooting down of a Russian warplane elsewhere in Syria last weekend.

The air strikes destroyed 19 targets including ammunition depots, shelters and gun positions, the armed forces said in a statement without specifying when the raids were conducted. The raids began at midnight, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Seven YPG fighter and two civilians were killed in the strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based group that monitors the war in Syria.

Turkey had halted air strikes as Russia worked on its air defence system in the wake of the shooting down by Syrian rebels of a Russian warplane in Idlib province on Feb. 3, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Ankara launched an air and ground offensive in Afrin on Jan. 20 against the YPG, which it views as a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a three-decade insurgency on Turkish soil.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone on Thursday and agreed to strengthen military and security service coordination in Syria, according to the Kremlin.

The YPG and its allies have set up three autonomous cantons in the north, including Afrin, since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.

Their territory has expanded since they joined forces with the United States to fight Islamic State militants - although Washington opposes their autonomy plans, as does Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Ankara has been angered by U.S. support for the Kurdish-led forces has infuriated Turkey, which views growing Kurdish power as a security threat along its frontier. (Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by David Dolan and Matthew Mpoke Bigg)</s>Two Turkish soldiers have died after their helicopter was shot down during Ankara's military operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Binali Yildirim, Turkey's prime minister, announced the deaths in a televised address on Saturday.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said an army helicopter had been "shot down" near the southern Hatay province.

"These things will happen, we are in a war ... We might lose a helicopter, but they'll pay the price for this," he said in Istanbul.

The state-run Anadolu Agency, citing the Turkish army, said the ATAK aircraft crashed at around 1pm local time (10:00 GMT).

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG armed group, told the AP news agency that his fighters downed the helicopter in Raju, northwest of the Syrian city of Afrin.

Turkey opened a new front in the multisided Syrian civil war, when it launched an air and ground offensive against YPG fighters on its southern border with Syria last month.

Armed campaign

The YPG - trained, armed and supported by the US to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - controls a swath of land in northern Syria.

Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long armed campaign.

Against this backdrop, HR McMaster, the US national security adviser, held talks on Sunday with his Turkish counterpart, Ibrahim Kalin, in Istanbul.

According to a joint statement issued by the White House and Turkish presidency, they "addressed issues affecting bilateral relations in detail and explored ways to expand the joint fight against all forms of terrorism".

Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, is also due to visit Ankara next week as part of a trip to five countries in the Middle East.

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting on Sunday from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border, said the conflict was "escalating day by day".

More than 20 Turkish soldiers and 150 YPG fighters have been killed since the military offensive began, he said. Seven Turkish civilians have also lost their lives.</s>ISTANBUL - A Turkish army helicopter was shot down by Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters near the north Syrian town of Afrin, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.



"One of our helicopters was downed just recently," Erdogan said speaking to members of his AK Party (AKP) in Istanbul. "These things will happen, we are in a war... We might lose a helicopter, but they'll pay the price for this."



He did not mention any casualties.



YPG sources separately confirmed the downing of the helicopter, the first officially confirmed destruction of a Turkish aircraft over Syria during the country's long-running civil war.



Ankara launched an air and ground offensive last month against Kurdish fighters in Syria's Afrin region on its border, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war.</s>A Turkish army helicopter was shot down by Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters near the north Syrian town of Afrin, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday and the Turkish military said two soldiers on board the aircraft died.

YPG sources separately confirmed the downing of the helicopter.

“One of our helicopters was downed just recently,” Erdogan said speaking to members of his AK Party (AKP) in Istanbul. “These things will happen, we are in a war… We might lose a helicopter, but they’ll pay the price for this.”

The Turkish military in a statement did not specify a reason for why the helicopter fell. It said two soldiers on board died and technical crews were investigating the crash.

Ankara launched an air and ground offensive last month against Kurdish fighters in Syria’s Afrin region on its border, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war.

The downed helicopter was the first officially confirmed loss of a Turkish aircraft over Syria since the start of the country’s long-running civil war.</s>ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish army helicopter was shot down by Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters near the north Syrian town of Afrin, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, and the Turkish military said two soldiers on board the aircraft were killed.

YPG sources separately confirmed the downing of the helicopter.

“One of our helicopters was downed just recently,” Erdogan told members of his AK Party in Istanbul. “These things will happen, we are in a war ... We might lose a helicopter, but they’ll pay the price for this.”

A statement from the Turkish military did not specify a reason for why the helicopter crashed. It said two soldiers on board were killed and technical crews were investigating the crash.

The downed helicopter was the first officially confirmed loss of a Turkish aircraft over Syria since the start of the country’s long-running civil war.

In another statement, the Turkish military said a total of nine soldiers were killed and 11 wounded on Saturday in clashes with mainly Kurdish forces near Afrin. It said it had killed 39 militants.

Ankara launched an air and ground offensive last month against Kurdish fighters in Syria’s Afrin region on its border, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war.

Separately, the Turkish military said on Friday the construction of a fifth military post near Syria’s northwestern region of Idlib had begun.

Turkey agreed to set up 12 observation posts in Idlib and neighbouring provinces under a deal reached with Tehran and Moscow to try to reduce fighting between pro-government forces and mainly Islamist insurgents in northwest Syria.

However, the “de-escalation” in violence they were meant to monitor has collapsed. The Syrian army, alongside Iranian-backed militias and heavy Russian air power, launched a major offensive in December to take territory in Idlib province.

Idlib is one of the last main strongholds of rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, who have been driven from most of their bastions in Syria since Russia joined the war on the side of Assad’s government in 2015. Turkey has long been one of the main allies of the anti-Assad rebels.</s>US-backed YPG in northern Syria says it has reached agreements with the Russian and Iran-backed regime of Bashar al-Assad to allow reinforcements to be sent to Afrin, to sustain their war against Turkey.

YPG is regarded by Turkey as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade armed conflict in Turkey and is regarded as a terrorist group by the US and the European Union.

Kino Gabriel, spokesman for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said to Reuters news agency that YPG has reached an understanding with the Assad regime.

"There are different ways to get reinforcements to Afrin, but the fundamental route is via regime forces. There are understandings between the two forces ... for the sake of delivering reinforcements to Afrin."

While YPG depends on Assad to reach Afrin, Damascus also needs the YPG's cooperation to source grain and oil from areas of the northeast under Kurdish control, the source added.

Pro-Assad forces backed by Russia and Iran, and YPG forces have fought each other elsewhere in Syria, and Damascus opposes YPG demands for autonomy. But, in Afrin, they have a common enemy and a mutual interest in blocking Turkish advances.

A commander in the military alliance fighting in support of Assad said, on condition of anonymity, "The Syrian regime is helping the Kurds with humanitarian support and some logistics, like turning a blind eye and allowing Kurdish support to reach some fronts."

Turkey, which regards the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin as a terrorist organization and a threat to its southern border, launched an assault on the region last month. In return, YPG has asked Damascus to send forces into the region to fight the Turkish army.

The Assad government shows no sign of doing so, but it is providing indirect help by allowing men and supplies to reach Afrin through the territory it controls, representatives of both sides told Reuters.

Assad stands to gain while doing little.

The arrival of reinforcements is likely to sustain YPG, bog down the Turkish forces, and prolong a conflict that is sapping the resources of military powers that rival Assad for control of Syrian territory.

For the US, it is a welcomed development in Syria's seven-year-old war, as complicated as it may be. Nevertheless, its strategic ally, the YPG, must at times make deals with Assad for its survival.

The Turkish military is making slow gains nearly three weeks into the operation it calls "Olive Branch".

The US has relied on the YPG as a vital ground component of its war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Syria, and has backed the group in other Kurdish-controlled regions in northern Syria along the border with Turkey.

But US forces are not in Afrin, so they have been unable to shield Afrin from the attack by Turkey, its NATO ally.

The YPG, meanwhile, accuse Russia of giving a green light for the Turkish attack by withdrawing observers it deployed in Afrin last year.

The Afrin war marks another twist in the complicated story of relations between Assad and the Syrian Kurdish groups, spearheaded by the YPG, that have carved out autonomous regions in northern Syria since the war began in 2011.

The YPG controls nearly all of Syria's frontier with Turkey. But Afrin is separated from the bigger Kurdish-controlled region further east by a 100km-wide zone controlled by the Turkish military and its Syrian militia allies.

For much of the war, Damascus and the YPG have avoided confrontation, at times fighting common enemies, including the rebel groups that are now helping Turkey attack Afrin.

But tensions have mounted in recent months, with Damascus threatening to march into parts of eastern and northern Syria captured by the SDF, with support from the US-led coalition.

Underlining that, pro-Assad forces attacked the SDF in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, drawing coalition air attacks overnight that killed more than 100 of the attackers, the coalition said.

"The regime has allowed the YPG to bring people into Afrin, while attacking it east of Euphrates (River). I think that is indicative of the state of relations right," said Noah Bonsey, International Crisis Group's Senior Analyst on Syria.

He added: "There is still a significant gap between the YPG and regime positions on the future of northeastern Syria."

The main Syrian Kurdish groups remain wedded to their vision of a Syria where they gain autonomy, in a form of federalism, that is at odds with Assad's determination to control all of Syria.

Each side has allowed the other to maintain footholds in its territory. In YPG-held Qamishli, Assad forces still control the airport. In the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo, a regime city, YPG forces patrol the streets.

Scores of Kurds from Sheikh Maqsoud have gone to Afrin to support the fight, Kurdish officials there said. The short journey requires movement through areas held by the government or its Iran-backed Shi'ite militia allies.

"Of course people went from Sheikh Maqsoud - in the hundreds - to bear arms and defend Afrin," said Badran Himo, a YPG official from Sheikh Maqsoud.

"Around 10 of them were martyred," he told Reuters as YPG forces held a rally to commemorate one of the dead.

Earlier this week, witnesses say, people drove in a convoy of hundreds of cars to Afrin, from other YPG-held areas, to support the group.

The Syrian government has ignored appeals by YPG authorities to guard the Syrian border at Afrin.

"We tried to convince them, via the Russians, to at least protect the borders, to take a position, but we did not get a result," Aldar Khalil, a top YPG politician, told Reuters.

"If they don't protect the borders, then at least they don't have the right to block the way for Syrian patriots who are protecting these borders, regardless of other domestic issues."</s>President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan insists on U.S. troops withdrawing from Manbij, saying that promises President Barack Obama made to Ankara must be kept. His most recent threat to seek international legal action against Washington's support for the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in northern Syria shows that Turkey's patience is running out.

The United States, in turn, relies on diplomacy to de-escalate tensions with Ankara. U.S. National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster will travel to Turkey this weekend, followed by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson next week, to hold talks on several flashpoints, including the YPG. Meanwhile, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) commanders recently visited Manbij and issued controversial statements that frustrated Turkish officials. Special Operations Commander Maj. Gen. Jamie Jarrard said that they are proud of their position in Manbij. Lt. Gen. Paul Funk added: "You hit us, we will respond aggressively. We will defend ourselves."

Needless to say, the upcoming visits from McMaster and Tillerson represent an opportunity for Ankara to change Washington's YPG policy, which has been shaped by CENTCOM. Operation Olive Branch further complicated U.S. commanders' YPG-centric Syria policy on the ground. It would appear that CENTCOM commanders falsely assumed that Turkey would not attack Afrin. And the upcoming visit by senior U.S. officials is an opportunity to ensure that the delusions of U.S. commanders will not run Washington's entire Syria strategy aground. Moreover, it is an opportunity to find a diplomatic solution to pressing problems in Turkish-U.S. relations before they reach a point of no return. Moving forward, the White House and the State Department must play a more active role in Washington's Syria policy. It is time to take a step back from the romantic approach of CENTCOM commanders, who make the case that they fought side by side with YPG and therefore must not abandon them now, and embrace the State Department's position that the YPG could be used as a bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations. Furthermore, the U.S. cannot afford to tolerate the current state of chaos in Washington, which makes President Donald Trump look like a liar. The tug of war between U.S. foreign policy makers over Turkey is starting to get frustrating.

Another reason why Washington is dispatching two heavyweights to Turkey now is the effects of Operation Olive Branch in northern Syria. In recent weeks, various stakeholders have developed new tactics and started a new round of negotiations. The U.S. position in Syria continues to weaken and the mass movement of YPG militants to Afrin, who are supposedly fighting Daesh, is a cause for serious concern.

In my view, Washington has a much bigger problem in Syria than the narrative pushed by U.S. officials, as their local partners are being distracted from the fight against Daesh. The truth is the U.S. cannot control the YPG anymore. As YPG militants crossed over to Afrin, they effectively rejected the claim by U.S. commanders that the YPG in Afrin were not the same people that received U.S. support against Daesh in the northeast. As the campaign continues, it is becoming clearer that PKK and YPG are indeed one and the same and that the United States has been supporting a terrorist organization.

By granting free passage to Afrin-bound YPG militants, the Bashar Assad regime created three distinct effects.

To the YPG militants, Damascus signaled that it is the only reliable partner if they want to protect themselves from Turkish attacks.

To Ankara, the regime sent the message that it wants to be dealt with directly unless it wants Assad to continue cooperating with the YPG.

More importantly, Assad showed the U.S. that their YPG partners are off the leash.

In other words, the Afrin-bound convoy established that the PKK and YPG are the same and that their U.S. handlers cannot stop YPG fighters from rushing to Afrin out of nationalist fervor.

It is our understanding that two senior members of the Trump administration will come to Turkey over the next days to negotiate. One could safely assume that they will initially propose a deal, under which Turkish forces would not enter the Afrin city center in return for the YPG's withdrawal from Manbij. However, tensions will ease only temporarily in the absence of an acceptable offer regarding the YPG presence east of the Euphrates River. To be clear, Ankara is unlikely to accept any arrangement that would grant control over any amount of territory to the YPG.

Still, it is important that diplomatic channels with the United States are kept open, but Washington has to set aside CENTCOM's tactical considerations to make concrete progress. Starting with Syria, Turkey and the U.S. must make a fresh start unless they want Russia, Iran and the Assad regime to make new moves to force Washington into a corner.
The Kurdish YPG shoots down a Turkish Air Force T129 ATAK helicopter over Syria's Afrin District, killing both pilots.