ALAMY
Turkish air strikes have seriously damaged an ancient temple in Syria’s Kurdish-held Afrin region, the Syrian government and a monitoring group say.
Pictures circulated online showed what appeared to be a crater in the centre of the Ain Dara site and rubble where there used to be carved basalt lions.
The Neo-Hittite temple was built by the Arameans in the first millennium BC.
Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels launched an offensive to push a Kurdish militia out of Afrin nine days ago.
The Turkish government says the People’s Protection Units (YPG) is an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in south-eastern Turkey for three decades.
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The YPG denies any direct organisational links to the PKK – an assertion backed by the US, which has provided the militia and allied Arab fighters with weapons and air support to help them battle the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, says at least 51 civilians living in Afrin have been killed in Turkish air and artillery strikes since the offensive began. Dozens of YPG fighters and rebels are also reported to have died in clashes, along with seven Turkish soldiers.
