Four terrorists belonging to the YPG, the Syrian branch of the PKK terrorist group, have been arrested in the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin, along with suicide vests and kilograms of C4 explosives, Turkish security forces announced Wednesday.
In a statement, the General Directorate of Security said that intelligence forces of the Syria Task Force in Afrin, working in coordination with police in southern Turkey's Hatay province, caught the terrorists affiliated with the YPG.
The operation concluded with the arrest of the four terrorists, including a woman, and a seizure of 13 kilograms (28.7 pounds) of C4 explosives and four cellphone-controlled suicide vests.
In addition, an individual recording visuals of the Special Operations campus in Afrin for reconnaissance and intelligence purposes was arrested. He later admitted that he had been paid by the terrorist group to take the photos.
Afrin was liberated from the YPG occupation through Turkey's Operation Olive Branch in 2018. After six town centers, 282 villages, 23 strategic mountains and hills and one dam were captured by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and the Syrian National Army (SNA), Turkish officials and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) rolled up their sleeves to revive the daily life in the region and started to deliver aid packages to civilians in the area.
Thanks to the measures taken by Turkish security forces, civilians, who had to flee the region due to the terrorist group's oppression and the following military operation, started to return to their homes on March 20, 2018. Since then, the population of the district reached 350,000 with rapid improvements in the region's infrastructure.
Despite all these positive developments, the YPG terrorist group continues to target residential places and civilians in Afrin, by using Tal Rifaat, located in the southeast of Afrin, as a base.
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.
