ALEPPO — The Afrin Liberation Forces, a group of Kurdish fighters from Afrin also known as Hezen Rizgariya Efrine (HRE), recently stepped up their attacks against the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Turkish army in the countryside of Aleppo. The attacks suggest HRE is a well-trained and organized group.

On April 8, news outlets with connections to the group circulated a video showing the group attacking a group of Turkish soldiers in Afrin a day earlier. 

On the same day, the Afrin Post news site published a statement by the group about its operations against the FSA and the Turkish army in the Aleppo countryside between March 19 and April 7. “On April 7, HRE launched an operation targeting a group of Turkish soldiers in the village of Gobele in the Afrin countryside, killing four soldiers and wounding five others,” it read. 

On April 7, the Turkish Ministry of Defense tweeted, “An attack carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)/People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorist group in the Olive branch area resulted in the death of two soldiers,” who it identified as Ahmet Akdal and Gokhan Cakir. According to the ministry, the Turkish forces responded with shelling and killed a number of fighters.