Kurds from YPG shifting to guerilla tactics in Afrin

The administration of Syria's Kurdish-populated northwestern Afrin region has indicated that members of the US-backed People's Protection Units (YPG) militants will shift from direct confrontation to guerrilla tactics in their battles against Turkish military forces and allied militants from the so-called Free Syrian Army.

"Our forces are present all over Afrin's geography. These forces will strike the positions of the Turkish enemy and its mercenaries at every opportunity," Othman Sheikh Issa, co-chair of the Afrin executive council, said in a televised statement on Sunday.

He added, "Our forces all over Afrin will become a constant nightmare for them."

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkish army troopers and their allies had wrested full control over Afrin town.

"Afrin town center was completely under control at 8.30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT)," Erdogan said during his address at the ceremony of 103rd anniversary of Gallipoli Campaign in the northwestern city of Çanakkale.

He added, "We will have to take necessary steps to rebuild Afrin, raise infrastructure and wipe out traces of terrorists. Turkish, Free Syrian Army's flags are hoisted in Afrin town center."

"We are not there to occupy but to wipe out terror groups and to achieve peace in Afrin," Erdogan noted.