THE head of the international Red Cross today called for access to civilians in the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin, warning Turkish aid workers lacked credibility after Ankara-led forces took the city.

In a major victory for Turkey’s two-month operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, Turkish-led forces pushed into Afrin yesterday apparently unopposed, taking up positions across the city.

Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the need to help those remaining in the city, warning accessing Afrin had already been difficult before the latest developments.

“Now with the combat operation we have a big number of people displaced,” he said in Geneva after a two-week trip to the Middle East, including war-ravaged Syria.

“We will have to find the best way possible to reach this population over the next couple of days and weeks,” he said, adding: “I hope this is possible.”

While advocating for access, Maurer acknowledged the national Turkish Red Crescent society, which would be best placed to go in, would have difficulty working with Kurdish civilians following the Turkish-led military operations.

“The credibility of a Turkish Red Crescent working in Afrin with the Kurdish population is close to zero,” he said, stressing the need for the ICRC itself to go into the city.

Maurer said any humanitarian operation to Afrin would be difficult.

Around 250,000 civilians have left in recent days after pro-Ankara fighters took the surrounding region and all but encircled the city, fleeing southwards to territory still held by the YPG or controlled by the Syrian regime.

Maurer also spoke of the situation in Syria’s other main flashpoint at the moment, the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.

Syria’s conflict, which started seven years ago this month when Bashar al-Assad’s forces cracked down on peaceful protests demanding regime change, has killed at least 350,000 people and displaced more than half of the pre-war population of 20 million. – AFP, March 19, 2018.