Heavy fighting in Syria’s Afrin District since Turkey’s weekend invasion has left scores dead, with the exact number of combatants killed on both sides heavily contested. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however, has put the civilian death toll at 30 or more.
Unsurprisingly, the Observatory’s reckoning of the deaths was that Turkish forces killed 28, while the Kurdish YPG and its allies killed two civilians. This is to be expected since Turkey is invading populated areas, and the Kurds are mostly shelling advancing troops and border posts.
Neither side has focused much on civilian deaths, however, rather both have hyped the number of enemy fighters they’ve killed. The Observatory estimated 48 killed among Turkey and its allied rebel fighters, mostly Free Syrian Army (FSA), and 42 among the Kurdish fighters.
Both sides are hotly contesting that, however, with Turkey claiming to have only lost 2 soldiers, and to have killed over 250 Kurds. The Kurdish YPG, however, is adamant they’ve killed more fighters than they’ve lost, a fact which, as thousands more pour in from both sides, may be of increasingly little solace.