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BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:05 P.M.) – Kurdish paramilitary forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) have endured horrific losses over the course of Turkey’s ‘Olive Branch’ operation in the Afrin region of Syria’s Aleppo province.

The near two-month long offensive by the Turkish Armed Forces and proxy militias under its command saw – for the first time ever – Syrian Kurdish forces dual it out with an opponent with vastly superior firepower resources.

Syrian conflict monitor sources are now reporting that from the point of the initial incursion of Turkish-backed forces into Afrin’s countryside until the capture of the regional capital (the city of Afrin) on Sunday, Kurdish paramilitary ranks suffered around 1,500 fighters killed in action

This statistic is far more believable that Ankara’s claim that around four thousand YPG and Islamic State (a complete lie stated for political purposes only) fighters have been killed.

In any case, 1,500 fighters is a huge number to lose on just one battlefront during less than two months.

Turkish airstrikes and artillery bombardment are widely believed to be the main source of YPG losses since the start of the Afrin operation.