Civilians run cover from explosions in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018, after Turkish forces and their rebel allies took control of the Kurdish-majority city.Turkish-backed rebels have seized the centre of Afrin city in northern Syria, Ankara said, as they made rapid gains in their campaign against Kurdish forces. A civilian inside Afrin said that rebels had deployed in the city centre and that the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia had withdrawn. / BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
A general view shows the destruction in the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria after Turkish-backed Syrian Arab fighters took control of it from Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) on March 18, 2018.Turkish-backed rebels have seized the centre of Afrin city in northern Syria, Ankara said, as they made rapid gains in their campaign against Kurdish forces. A civilian inside Afrin said that rebels had deployed in the city centre and that the YPG militia had withdrawn. / OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP/Getty Images
A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel drives past a burning shop in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018.Turkish forces and their rebel allies were in control of the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria, AFP journalists on the ground reported. /BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels help evacuate an elderly woman following explosions in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018, after Turkish forces and their rebel allies took control of the Kurdish-majority city.Turkish-backed rebels have seized the centre of Afrin city in northern Syria, Ankara said, as they made rapid gains in their campaign against Kurdish forces. A civilian inside Afrin said that rebels had deployed in the city centre and that the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia had withdrawn. / BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel gestures as they gather in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018.Turkish forces and their rebel allies were in control of the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria, AFP journalists on the ground reported. / BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Turkish-backed Syrian Arab fighters loot shops after seizing control of the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin from the Kurdish People's Protection Units(YPG) on March 18, 2018. In a major victory for Ankara's two-month operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, Turkish-led forces pushed into Afrin apparently unopposed, taking up positions across the city. / BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
A Turkish-backed Syrian rebel raises a dagger as they gather in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018.Turkish forces and their rebel allies were in control of the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria, AFP journalists on the ground reported. /BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Turkish-backed Syrian Arab fighters loot shops after seizing control of the northwestern Syrian city of Afrin from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) on March 18, 2018. In a major victory for Ankara's two-month operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, Turkish-led forces pushed into Afrin apparently unopposed, taking up positions across the city. / BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
Syrian regime soldiers drive through the town of Kafr Batna, in Eastern Ghouta, on March 18, 2018. Regime forces have retaken some 80 percent of Eastern Ghouta since launching a brutal air and ground offensive on Feb. 18, carving it up into three ever-smaller pockets held by different rebel groups. / STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images
Civilians run for cover from explosions in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018, after Turkish forces and their rebel allies took control of the Kurdish-majority city.Turkish-backed rebels have seized the centre of Afrin city in northern Syria, Ankara said, as they made rapid gains in their campaign against Kurdish forces. A civilian inside Afrin said that rebels had deployed in the city centre and that the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia had withdrawn. /NAZEER AL-KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images
Civilians fleeing the city of Afrin in northern Syria are seen on the back of a pick up truck as they enter the town of Tal Rifaat in the government-controlled part of the northern Aleppo province, on March 18, 2018. Turkey-led forces made a lighting advance inside Syria's Afrin, taking control of half the Kurdish-majority city, a war monitor said. Turkish troops and allied rebels seized more than 50 percent of the city from Kurdish forces after days of heavy bombardment, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. /GEORGE OURFALIAN/AFP/Getty Images
A Syrian child looks on as families board Syrian Red Crescent buses evacuating humanitarian cases from Douma in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta to the government-controlled Wafidin crossing on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 18, 2018.Eastern Ghouta's rebels have said they reject any evacuation, but on March 17, 2018, announced they were prepared to hold direct United Nations-backed ceasefire talks with regime backer Russia. Thomas Pierret, a Syria analyst, said the rebels stood little chance against the onslaught, which the Observatory says has claimed more than 1,400 civilian lives in a month. / HAMZA AL-AJWEH/AFP/Getty Images
Syrian men help another boarding Syrian Red Crescent buses evacuating humanitarian cases from Douma in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta to the government-controlled Wafidin crossing on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 18, 2018.Eastern Ghouta's rebels have said they reject any evacuation, but on March 17, 2018, announced they were prepared to hold direct United Nations-backed ceasefire talks with regime backer Russia. Thomas Pierret, a Syria analyst, said the rebels stood little chance against the onslaught, which the Observatory says has claimed more than 1,400 civilian lives in a month. / HAMZA AL-AJWEH/AFP/Getty Images
Syrian people walk in a street of the Eastern Ghouta rebel-held enclave of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 18, 2018. As Russia-backed Syrian regime forces chip away at what remains of the last opposition bastion outside Damascus, experts say the future looks bleak for rebels there. / HAMZA AL-AJWEH/AFP/Getty Images
Syrian civilians evacuated from the Eastern Ghouta enclave reach out to receive food distributed by Syrian soldiers as they pass the regime-controlled corridor opened by the government forces in Hawsh al-Ashaari, east of the enclave town of Hammuriyeh (Hamouria) on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 18, 2018.Rebels have held out in Eastern Ghouta since 2012, but a regime assault in the last month has retaken more than 80 percent of the former opposition bastion, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor says. /LOUAI BESHARA/AFP/Getty Images
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Civilians run cover from explosions in the city of Afrin in northern Syria on March 18, 2018, after Turkish forces and their rebel allies took control of the Kurdish-majority city.Turkish-backed rebels have seized the centre of Afrin city in northern Syria, Ankara said, as they made rapid gains in their campaign against Kurdish forces. A civilian inside Afrin said that rebels had deployed in the city centre and that the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia had withdrawn. / BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images
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By Dean Krakel | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED:
Getting your player ready...
Turkish forces and their rebel allies were in control of the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in northwestern Syria today and Russia-backed Syrian regime forces chiped away at what remains of the last opposition bastion outside Damascus.
