Reports: Children among the dead after Syrian rebels clash in Turkish-held Afrin
Clashes between Syrian rebel groups in the northern city of Afrin left at least two children dead Thursday.
Fighting among Turkey-backed Syrian rebel groups in the Turkish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria left several civilians dead Thursday, including two children, according to war monitors.
Fierce clashes between the Hamzat Division and the Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam factions erupted Thursday, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Three civilians, including two children, were killed in the gunfire, the monitoring group said.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow in the Middle East Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote on Twitter that the fighting started after a group of fighters from the Hamzat Division walked into a shop run by a man displaced from Syria’s southwestern Ghouta region.
“They asked to purchase something for 300 lira [$0.16] on credit. The owner of the shop refused. In response, the Hamzat shot up the place & tossed a grenade, killing the shop owner and his son,” she wrote.
