THOUSANDS of mainly Kurdish civilians have begun fleeing the Afrin region of north Aleppo as Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters approach the besieged Syrian town of the same name.
Democratic Union Party (PYD) spokesman Ebrahim Ebrahim said that the fleeing Kurds are headed towards government-controlled areas.
Mr Ebrahim added that the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army is composed of “extremist groups,” explaining that civilians were being forced to leave after Turkish troops destroyed water and power stations that supply the town of Afrin.
VIJAY PRASHAD details how US support for Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa allowed him to break the resistance of the autonomous Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)
VIJAY PRASHAD looks at the web of militias and drug-trafficking gangs that emerged in the Sweida region through the Syrian civil war, and how they relate to recent clashes and Israel’s intervention


