'Only terrorists are target' in Operation Olive Branch

By Fatih Hafiz Mehmet

ANKARA

Turkish Chief of General Staff said late Saturday that only terrorists, their shelters, buildings, weapons and vehicles would be targeted in Syria’s Afrin region as part of "Operation Olive Branch".

"Every kind of attention and sensitivity will be shown so that civilians and innocent people will not be harmed," Gen. Hulusi Akar said in a video footage released by the Turkish General Staff.

Turkey started the operation on Saturday at 5 p.m. [1400GMT] in Afrin.

The operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkish borders and the region as well as to eliminate terrorists and to protect Syrian people from the terrorists’ oppression and cruelty.

The operation is carried out under the framework of Turkey’s rights based on international law, UN Security Council’s decisions and self-defense right under UN charter, said the military.

The PYD/PKK is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, which has been designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU.

Since the mid-1980s, the PKK has waged a wide-ranging terror campaign against the Turkish state in which an estimated 40,000 people have been killed.

More than 1,200 security personnel have been martyred since July 2015 when the group resumed its armed campaign against the Turkish state following a fragile cease-fire.