Turkey says it won't hand over Afrin in northern Syria to the government in Damascus after it removes the Kurdish YPG militia, as its military and allied rebel forces prepare to attack the surrounded city.
Thousands of people continued to flee Afrin on Thursday to Nubul and Zhara in the northern countryside of Aleppo, which is under control of the Syrian government, amid air raids, artillery shelling, and the threat of an imminent ground invasion, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.
Twelve people were killed and 60 wounded over the past 24 hours in Afrin city and its outskirts, the UK-based group reported. Kurdish sources said the death toll is likely to increase as many wounded are in critical condition, Al Jazeera reports.
"Our staff are doing their best, but our rooms are filled with wailing wounded and people in pain, as we lack some medical supplies," Dr Joan Shitika, head of the Afrin city hospital, told dpa news agency.
