kayhan.ir

News ID: 50195
Publish Date : 17 February 2018 - 21:58

Turkey Denies Reports of Using Chemical Weapons in Syria's Afrin


ANKARA (Dispatches) – A Turkish diplomatic source says Turkey has never used chemical weapons in its operations in Syria, and takes the utmost care of civilians, after Syrian Kurdish forces and a monitoring group accused it of carrying out a gas attack in Syria’s Afrin region.
"These are baseless accusations. Turkey never used chemical weapons. We take utmost care about civilians in Operation Olive Branch,” the source said.
Syrian Kurdish forces and a monitoring group said the Turkish military carried out a suspected gas attack that wounded six people in Syria’s Afrin region on Friday.
The source also described the accusations of wounding six civilians through a suspected gas attack as "black propaganda”.
Turkey launched an air and ground offensive last month on the Afrin region, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war, to target Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
Reizan Hedu, from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), told Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency on Saturday, "The Turkish army possesses aircraft, tanks and missiles, and is using weapons banned by international conventions like napalm and shells laced with chlorine.”
Hedu further noted that Turkish troops actually did not advance in Afrin, but engaged in hit-and-run tactics instead.
The remarks came a day after the general director of Afrin Hospital, Jiwan Mohammad, told Syria’s official news agency, SANA, that six people had been admitted to the medical facility with symptoms of "breathing difficulties, coughing, and burning all over their bodies,” which he said were indicative of a chemical weapon attack.
He added that the victims came from al-Mazyaneh village on the outskirts of Afrin.
Mohammad noted that four of the victims were stable, while two others were in a critical condition.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also told Reuters that Turkish forces and their terrorist allies in Syria had hit the village on Friday with shells. The Britain-based monitoring group also said medical sources in Afrin reported that six people in the attack suffered breathing difficulties and dilated pupils, indicating a suspected gas attack.
Syrian medical teams are reportedly working to identify the type of toxic gas used in the attack.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said that Afrin should be cleared of "terrorists,” and demanded the deployment of Turkish troops there during a speech back in November 2016.
This is while U.S. officials regard the YPG as the most effective fighting force against the Daesh terrorist group in northern Syria, and have substantially increased their weaponry and technology support to the group.

This photo taken on February 10, 2018, from the Syrian village of Atme in the northwestern province of Idlib shows smoke plumes rising in the village of Dayr Ballut in Afrin region, where Turkish forces and allied militants groups are conducting an offensive against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).