People living in Afrin, which was liberated from the terrorist group PKK’s Syrian offshoot, the YPG, by the Turkish military and the Syrian National Army (SNA), want the terrorist group’s attacks to end on the fourth anniversary of the city’s liberation.

Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch, which ended on March 18, 2018, was launched on Jan. 20 the same year. Turkish forces and the SNA liberated six town centers, 282 villages, six village settlements, 23 strategic mountains and hills, one dam and 50 strategic points.

Fifty-four Turkish soldiers lost their lives, 236 soldiers were wounded, while 320 SNA soldiers were killed in action. Some 4,500 terrorists were killed in the operation

The operation in Afrin – which lies close to the border with Turkey's Hatay province – was widely expected in the wake of Operation Euphrates Shield, which cleared Daesh terrorists from Turkey's border between Aug. 24, 2016 and March 2017.

Afrin had been a major stronghold for the YPG/PKK since July 2012, when the Bashar Assad regime in Syria left the city to the terrorist group without putting up a fight. In order to end the terrorist group's oppression of local people, Turkey cleared the area of PKK-affiliated terrorists with 72 Turkish aircrafts striking targets following an announcement of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Jan. 20, 2018.

Turkish security forces took the utmost care to not harm civilians, while the terrorist group, in contrast, used civilians as human shields. During the operation, the YPG/PKK targeted residential areas in the Turkish provinces of Hatay and nearby Kilis, launching missile attacks that killed seven civilians and injured 124.

Following Operation Olive Branch, many Turkish humanitarian agencies, including the Turkish Red Crescent, distributed food daily in the district center and villages to meet the needs of the people.

With the stability in the region secured, civilians began to return to their homes following March 20, 2018. The number of civilians who returned to their homes has reached 600,000 in the past four years.

Seven local councils were established after the liberation, to serve people’s needs, including providing assistance in farming, trade, culture, sports, health and education.

The councils have also been carrying out reconstruction and work to repair roads.

Turkey has also provided support in the health care and education sectors, opening a 100-bed hospital. There are five hospitals in the town center and medical centers established across different districts provide health care to locals free of charge.

Afrin’s liberation from the YPG/PKK terrorists also paved the way for a new curriculum to replace the one imposed by the terrorists.

Around 75,000 students in 272 schools, including the post-secondary institution Gaziantep University Afrin Education Center, receive education in the city.

Locals wary of being targeted by YPG/PKK terrorists

Afrin resident Mustafa Solaiman, who spoke to Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday, noted that the area has frequently been targeted in attacks.

“I’m from Afrin and I was injured in the rocket attacks carried out by the YPG/PKK 45 days ago,” Solaiman said, adding that the YPG/PKK targets innocent civilians.

Still receiving treatment, Solaiman said he is pleased with the health care services and thanked Turkey.

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Khalil Mustafa said that Afrin is gradually returning to normalcy and it has become much easier to conduct trade, but frequent attacks by the YPG/PKK terrorists confine people to their homes.

“We hope terrorist attacks end soon,” he said.

Another resident, Ahmed Isa told AA that Afrin has been revived to a great extent after Turkey’s operation, but YPG/PKK terrorists continue to target the city using rockets and car bombs.

“We want to live in peace,” he said.

Turkey eliminates 3 YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria

Meanwhile, the Turkish military eliminated three YPG/PKK terrorists in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone in northern Syria, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched a trio of successful counterterrorism operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable the peaceful settlement of residents – namely, the Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019) operations.

In its more than 40-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

Local people living in areas held by the YPG have long suffered from its atrocities, as the terrorist organization has a notorious record of human rights abuses, ranging from kidnappings, recruitment of child soldiers, torture, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in Syria.

The U.S. has primarily partnered with the YPG in northern Syria in the fight against the Daesh terrorist group. Turkey strongly opposes the YPG's presence in northern Syria, which has been a major sticking point in strained Ankara-Washington relations. The U.S. has provided military training and thousands of truckloads of weaponry to the YPG, despite its NATO ally's security concerns./DS

Every year, Turkish nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) mobilize to boost humanitarian aid to disadvantaged communities around the world on the occasion of Ramadan. As charitable acts are a staple during the Islamic month of fasting, they have turned their attention to the plight of displaced people of Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of people have left the country already, fleeing into nearby European countries, as well as into Turkey. But the dire need for aid prevails for those unable or unwilling to leave.

Charities based in Turkey reach out to other countries during Ramadan, which will begin in April this year, with humanitarian aid packages and iftar meals (a meal fasting Muslims eat to end their fast) for needy Muslims.

They are already in the field delivering aid to Ukraine but their activities will increase during Ramadan, when they will deliver meals, blankets, clothes and other aid.

Kemal Özdal, head of Sadakataşı Association, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday that they would be active in 34 countries this year and their aid would focus on people living in conflict zones and disaster-hit areas. The association usually delivers aid to the Middle East, Asia and Africa but they have included Ukraine in their campaign this year. “We see people increasingly leaving the country through the Polish and Romanian borders. We sent our crews on the fourth day of the war to check their emergency needs. During Ramadan, we will deliver aid for refugees in Romania, Poland, Hungary, as well as those internally displaced in Ukraine,” he said. Özdal said both public agencies and NGOs acted fast in response to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.

Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH), another Turkish charity, has been at the forefront of aid, especially for Crimean Tatars in Ukraine, for years. IHH deputy director Emre Kaya says they are working to deliver aid in European countries where the refugees took shelter. He said they were handing food and blankets to the displaced in Ukraine as well. “We made arrangements for aid to Ukraine this Ramadan. We will set up iftar dinners and give away food packages,” he said. Kaya said there was a large wave of refugees from Ukraine and it would be a “new experience” for them to reach out to people in Europe after years of work in other countries.

Recently, Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) had sent truckloads of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and set up mobile kitchens for locals. Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) announced last week that 23 trucks carrying humanitarian assistance sent by Turkey had arrived in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. In a statement, the agency said the aid includes 3,536 food parcels, 510 family tents, 26 general-purpose tents, 930 beds, 680 pillow sheet sets and 4,416 blankets.

Aid agencies continue to ramp up their efforts to bring much-needed relief supplies to civilians affected by the fighting in Ukraine, and also to over 3 million refugees who have fled the country since the conflict began. Rzeszow, the largest city in southeastern Poland, roughly 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Ukrainian border, has become a humanitarian aid hub for the region. By road and by air, aid supplies – including food, blankets, solar lamps, warm clothing, mattresses, jerrycans and plastic sheeting – continue to arrive in a massive warehouse run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), next to the airport outside Rzeszow.

"What we have been doing is bringing more people into the country, bringing more assistance into the country, working with partners to make sure that we can work effectively, to do what we can to help,” said Matthew Saltmarsh, UNHCR spokesperson. Saltmarsh said the agency has received “over 300 million zloty of donations” from the private sector in the past month and has managed to deliver some of the relief supplies to Ukraine. So far, the UNCHR has moved 22 trucks and soon plans to move another 10 with emergency supplies to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, not far from the Polish border. Lviv has largely been spared the scale of destruction unfolding further east, becoming the first destination for many of those fleeing the country.

Some of the aid transported to the city has been unloaded and distributed there, Saltmarsh said, but the rest is waiting to go on when the security situation allows humanitarian assistance to reach the hardest-hit parts of the country, including the port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged and subjected to punitive Russian attacks almost since the start of the war. "That is obviously very worrying and a big challenge for the humanitarian community,” he told The Associated Press (AP).

Efforts are also being stepped up to assist the refugees, about half of them children, who have escaped over the past weeks to Poland and other countries bordering Ukraine. Refugees now arriving in neighboring countries are "more vulnerable, in a more traumatic state” than those who came in the early days of the war, Saltmarsh said.

Kateryna Horiachko, who escaped from the area around the capital, Kyiv, said people there were "devastated." "They lost their homes, they lost everything they had, they lost relatives ... there is nothing left for (us) than (to) become refugees,” added Horiachko, who arrived in Suceava, Romania, on Thursday. Horiachko said her husband and parents remain in Ukraine and that she was hoping to find a way to support them. "The economy in Ukraine is also ruined, people (are) now without work, without income and they need support," she added./Daily Sabah

Oil prices rebounded on Wednesday, with the market awaiting the outcome of talks between Ukraine and Russia and despite Iranian oil on the global agenda once again after the exclusion of Russia-Iran economic ties from Western sanctions on Moscow, and demand fears after the re-emergence of COVID-19 in China.

International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $102.94 per barrel at 0647 GMT for a 3% gain after closing the previous session at $99.91 a barrel.

American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $98.69 per barrel at the same time for a 2.3% increase after the previous session closed at $96.44 a barrel.

Prices were volatile during the previous session as investors await the conclusion to talks between Ukraine and Russia.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged for patience from Ukrainians during the negotiations on establishing a cease-fire and ending the war.

“It is important. It is difficult, but important, because any war ends in an agreement. Meetings continue,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Telegram.

- Supply worries and search for alternative resources continue

After Russia’s economy was targeted with sanctions by several Western countries, including the US and UK, oil came under supply pressure, pushing prices to the highest levels since 2008.

In search of alternative oil supplies, Iran and Venezuela have been the focus of many consuming countries despite both being the target of US sanctions.

Talks to remove Iran’s oil export ban, which started in April 2021, showed progress until Russia insisted last week that its trade with Iran should be exempt from US sanctions once an agreement is signed.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia had received written guarantees to protect its cooperation with Iran against the recent US and EU sanctions, noting that the guarantees are included in the text of the agreement.

Alleviating demand, China's daily virus figures have surged to a two-year high amid concerns that the world's second-largest economy could see a slowdown in its recovery.

The Chinese National Health Commission said 3,507 new locally spread cases had been identified in the latest 24-hour period, up from 1,337 a day earlier./aa

At least two people were killed and two others injured as Russian forces continued attacking residential areas in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, and Zaporizhzhia through late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said.

According to statements issued separately by local Ukrainian administrators and public institutions, the Russian army continued its air and missile attacks on Ukrainian residential areas through the night.

Two people were killed when Russian missiles hit two apartments in Kharkiv, 480 kilometers (about 300 miles) northeast of the capital Kyiv.

The Russian bombardment reportedly damaged some buildings in the city, prompting civilians to seek refuge in subway stations and basements, said local officials.

In Kyiv, however, two people were injured when shrapnel struck a 12-story building.

Separately, a missile hit a railway station and botanical garden in Zaporizhzhia, a city in southeastern Ukraine some 560 kilometers from Kyiv.

Similarly, the local authorities in Odessa said the Black Sea port city had been subject to missile strikes from Russian warships, though no other information was provided in the statement.

The Russia-Ukraine war, which began on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 691 civilians have been killed and 1,143 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

More than 3 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN./aa

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ukraine’s security service plans to carry out a chemical attack on civilians and then blame it on Russia.

"We know for sure that with the support of Western countries, the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) is preparing a provocation with the use of toxic substances against civilians.

"The purpose of the provocation is to accuse Russia of using chemical weapons against the population of Ukraine," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a daily briefing in Moscow.

Russia has destroyed all of its chemical weapons, which was verified by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and therefore does not have chemical munitions, said Konashenkov.

He added that the Russian military found in a captured regional headquarters of Ukraine's National Guard a detailed map of the territory of Ukraine with markings showing storage sites of toxic substances.

"Therefore, any attempt by the SBU with the use of toxic substances will inevitably be disclosed," he warned.

Commenting on allegations that Russian forces had shot and killed 10 people waiting in line for bread in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, Konashenkov stressed that no Russian soldiers are or have been there.

"I want to emphasize that there were no Russian servicemen in Chernihiv and there are none. All units of the Russian armed forces are outside Chernihiv blocking roads and are not conducting any offensive actions on the city.

"Thus, all the dead people are victims of the terror of Ukrainian nationalists, or these video shots were staged by the Ukrainian Security Service," he said.

Konashenkov also denied that Russian forces had carried out an airstrike on a theater building in the city of Mariupol, saying "Russian aviation did not perform any tasks related to striking ground targets in the city."

He added that refugees that had escaped from Mariupol said neo-Nazis of the Azov battalion were holding civilians hostage in the theater building, using the upper floors as firing points.

"According to the available reliable data, the militants of the nationalist Azov battalion committed a new bloody provocation by blowing up the theater building they had mined," he said.

He also accused the nationalist units of shooting at a column of buses containing refugees heading towards Russia from the city of Kharkiv, which left four people dead.

According to Konashenkov, on March 16, Russia struck an intelligence center in the city of Vinnitsya with high-precision weapons.

The Russian Aerospace Forces also shot down a Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter, six unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and 34 targets of Ukraine's military infrastructure, including a multiple launch rocket system, three command posts, an electronic warfare station, seven ammunition depots and 19 points of large concentrations of military equipment, he noted.

In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 180 aircraft and helicopters, 166 UAVs, 1,367 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 132 multiple rocket launchers, 502 field artillery and mortar guns, as well as 1,156 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed, he said.

The Russia-Ukraine war, which started on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial restrictions on Moscow and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 726 civilians have been killed and 1,174 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to the UN, while noting that conditions on the ground make it difficult to verify the true number.

Over 3 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, said the UN refugee agency./aa

Major indices in the US stock market closed with gains Wednesday after the Federal Reserve made its first rate hike since late 2018.

The Fed raised interest rates by 25 basis points to range between 0.25% and 0.50% -- a move widely expected by investors.

The central bank also signaled it could make an additional six rate hikes for the remainder of 2022.

Markets have been pricing in as much as seven rate increases but as low as four for this year.

Although the Fed's projection is hawkish, it did not create much effect before the final bell as uncertainty amid the Fed's monetary policy has been removed until May.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 518 points, or 1.55%, to 33,063 at the close. The S&P 500 jumped 95 points, or 2.24%, to end at 4,357.

The Nasdaq rallied almost 488 points, or 3.77%, to finish the day at 13,436.

The VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, plummeted 10.6% to 26.67. The dollar index was down 0.73% to 98.47.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes gained 0.9% to 2.179%.

Precious metals were on the rise with gold adding 0.35% to $1,924 per ounce and silver increasing 0.76% to $25.07.

Crude prices continued their decline, pulling back from last week's 14-year highs.

Global benchmark Brent crude was trading at $97.58 per barrel, down 2.3%, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $94.80 -- a 1.7% loss./aa

Five bodies, including three children, were recovered from the rubble in Chernihiv in Ukraine, officials said Wednesday, as Russia continues its war against the country.

The Ukraine State Emergency Service said search and rescue teams reached the bodies while working to remove the wreckage from a dormitory after the city was bombarded by the Russian army.

Meanwhile, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov, who was kidnapped by the Russian army, has been released.

Kiril Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president's office, said Fedorov had already spoken to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Fedorov is in a safe place and will return to his post soon, added Tymoshenko.

Zelenskyy had requested assistance from the heads of state of various countries for the release of Fedorov, who was kidnapped on March 11.

The Russia-Ukraine war, which began Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 726 civilians have been killed and 1,174 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

More than 3 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN./aa