World War 3: Turkey using 'CHEMICAL WEAPONS against CIVILIANS', claims human rights group

TURKISH forces have been accused of using chemical weapons against civilian populations during its campaign across northern Syria in order to take out “terrorist group” the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), it has been claimed

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, said six people were hit in Turkish shelling in Al-Sheikh Hadid in the Afrin region on Friday.

The victims are said to have had dilated pupils and difficulties breathing.

A statement by the group said: "Medical sources confirmed the use of gases during the shelling, but the SOHR was not able, until now, to know the type of the used gases.”

The official Syrian news agency SANA repeated the claim, quoting local doctors, and said six people were hospitalised with symptoms of suffocation from Turkish projectiles carrying poisonous gas.

Syrian Kurdish politician Hediye Yusuf posted photos of several wounded men on Twitter, who claimed they were exposed to a sarin gas attack by Turkey.

Last month Syrian-Kurdish politician Îlham Ehmed, who is co-chairperson of a secular, non-Islamist opposition called the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), accused Turkey of using the “forbidden” weapon napalm against civilians.

Writing on Twitter, she said: “The Turkish army uses the forbidden weapon napalm in Afrin against civilians.”

But this claim has not been verified.

It was also reported in The Independent that Turkey has been accused of recruiting ex-ISIS fighters to attack Kurds in Syria.

A former Isis fighter from north-east Syria who remains in close touch with the jihadi movement said: “Most of those who are fighting in Afrin against the YPG [People’s Protection Units] are Isis, though Turkey has trained them to change their assault tactics.”

But Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, denied the claims that Turkey has been using chemical weapons on civilians.

He said: "It is out of the question for Turkey to use an internationally prohibited war tool in Afrin.”

Turkey with Syrian opposition forces launched an air and ground operation called Operation Olive Branch into Afrin region to remove the US-backed YPG from its borders there.

The YPG is considered to be a “terrorist group” in Turkey with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK has waged a decades-long fight against the Turkish state that killed tens of thousands of people.

Mr Aktay claims the parties who accuse Turkey should prove their claims and that Turkish forces were taking the operation slowly to avoid civilian casualties.

He said: “The Afrin operation, and the Syrian war in general, have become a war of propaganda.

“And Turkey's rivals are trying to make up for the war they are losing on the ground through this propaganda.

"Generally speaking, if Turkey was not being utmost careful about not killing civilians in Afrin, and followed the methods [Syian President Bashar] al-Assad implemented on his own people, this operation would probably have been concluded by now.”

Operation Olive Branch remains controversial in Turkey.

The Turkish authorities have arrested scores of people, including doctors and journalists, who have spoken out against the campaign.