Eight fighters of Syrian pro-government national defense forces were killed and six more were injured in an airstrike conducted by the Turkish aircraft near the Syrian northern city of Afrin, a source told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"The Turkish aircraft hit the checkpoint of the defense forces, separating the town of Nubl [located in some 18 miles near Afrin] from the Zahraa village. It has resulted in death of eight members of the national defense forces and in injuries of six more," the source said.
On February 22, the Syrian pro-government forces entered Afrin to support the Kurds being attacked by the Turkish army and the FSA, as part of Ankara's Olive Branch Operation launched on January 20. The residents of the city greeted the pro-Damascus forces.
In its turn Turkey stated that the fighters had become Turkey's "legitimate target."
READ MORE: Turkey Announces Preliminary End Date of Olive Branch Op in Afrin
Earlier, Behchet Ebdo, the chairman of the Afrin Canton Council said that 48 pro-Syrian government troops have been killed amid clashes with the Turkish military and the Free Syrian Army opposition group. He noted that two militiamen from the pro-government forces had been killed in the first day after their arrival in Afrin, while three had been wounded.
According to the Anadolu news agency, a total of 1,100 square kilometers of the Afrin region have been cleared of Kurdish forces during the operation.
Turkey's operation in northern Syria envisages clearing the area of the Kurdish People's Protection Units, considered by Ankara as an part of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey considers as a terrorist organization.
Damascus has firmly condemned the operation as an assault on Syria's sovereignty. Russia, in turn, has urged all the parties to exercise restraint and called for respect of Syria's territorial integrity.
