Turkish air force jets pounded targets around the town of Jindires as a military offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces in northern Syria entered its 45th day. Efforts to drive out the group known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Jindires are seen as critical to Turkey’s goal of encircling Afrin amid growing debate as to whether Turkey’s hawkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will follow through with pledges to capture the city of Afrin itself — a fight that promises to be drawn out and bloody.

A commander from the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) contacted by Al-Monitor via WhatsApp concurred that the fall of Jindires, which lies southwest of the city of Afrin, would disrupt access to and from Syrian regime-held areas that serve as the Kurds’ logistical supply lines for the defense of Afrin and its environs.

“The Turkish strategy is to lay siege to Afrin and to cut off the connection to Nubl and Zahra,” the SDF commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Al-Monitor.

Forces loyal to the Syrian regime have reportedly been deployed in support of the YPG from the mainly Shiite villages of Nubl and Zahra. Haberturk, a mainstream news channel, broadcast footage shot from Hatay, on the Turkish side of the border, of Turkish jets bombing Jindires. Large plumes of brown smoke rose from a hilltop that the channel said was near Jindires. Haberturk reported that the purpose of the strikes was to "soften" resistance before Turkish-led ground forces moved into the town itself.