Turkey: 9 YPG/PKK terrorists held in Afrin remanded

HATAY, Turkey

Nine YPG/PKK terrorists accused of being behind an attack that martyred two Turkish soldiers during Operation Olive Branch in northern Syria have been remanded pending trial, judicial sources said Tuesday.

A criminal court of peace in the southern Hatay province remanded the nine men on charges of deliberate killing, membership in an armed terrorist group, and violating the country's unity and territorial said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Last Friday, Turkey's National Intelligence Service (MIT) caught the nine alleged terrorists in a joint operation with Turkish gendarmerie forces in Afrin, Syria and brought them to the southern border Hatay province.

They were allegedly involved in a Jan. 23, 2018 terror attack in Afrin's Rajo area that martyred Lt. Oguz Kaan Usta and Specialist Sgt. Mehmet Muratdagi.

The terrorists took away Usta's body, which was retrieved only some two months later.

On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to remove YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin. On March 18, Turkish troops and the Free Syrian Army liberated the Afrin district center.

Reporting by Lale Koklu; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu