Operation Olive Branch one week on – Here's what you need to know

Free Syria Army (FSA) supported by Turkish armed forces entered into Afrin - known for olive production and textiles in northwestern Syria - on January 20, following a US decision to create a border force of 30,000 YPG/SDF militants near Turkey's border in northern Syria.

Terror group YPG dominates SDF which was founded by the US in 2015 to fight Daesh in northern Syria.

Despite Turkey offering to launch a joint operation with the US against Daesh in Syria, Washington chose to arm SDF instead, ignoring Ankara’s concerns.

Turkey considers the YPG a Syrian arm of the PKK, which is a designated terrorist organisation in Turkey, the US and the EU.

Even as the United States has confirmed on Saturday to the Turkish officials that the arms support to YPG/PKK would be frozen, Turkey has vowed to take the fight against the terror groups to its logical end.

Now, a week into the Operation Olive Branch, here's what we know of the events that have taken place thus far. 

390-plus YPG/PKK militants killed or captured

Since the beginning of the operation, 394 terrorists have been "neutralised", according to the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF).

Turkish military often uses the word "neutralised" in their statements to imply that the militants in question were either captured or killed.

TAF said on Saturday that 340 YPG/PKK and Daesh targets were destroyed in the air strikes so far.

The Turkish military said that three Turkish soldiers were also killed and 30 others injured. The week-long fighting also claimed lives of 13 FSA fighters besides injuring 121 others. 

TRT World's Yasin Eken on how the operation has unfolded so far.

Territory freed from YPG/PKK militants

Afrin has been a major hideout for the YPG/PKK since July 2012 when Syria's Bashar al Assad regime left the city to the terror group without a fight, after a year of popular revolt sweeping across the country.

TAF and FSA have been targeting the locations of YPG/PKK from six different positions.

Turkey says it aims to create a security zone 30 km deep inside Syria and help the return of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees it hosts.

Since the beginning of the operation, Turkish forces and the FSA have already liberated many villages from the militants.

Early on Saturday, the joint forces of TAF and FSA freed another village called Ali Bekki from YPG/PKK, by killing or capturing 10 militants and overrunning their training camp.

Busting propaganda efforts

The week-long operation also saw the YPG/PKK terrorists and their supporters employing a misinformation campaign using social media and online platforms against the Turkish military.

One photo - one of three recently exposed - claimed to show "Turkish planes taken by the YPG in Afrin". The March 16, 2015 image was in fact a shot of a Malaysian stunt plane.

Another photo taken on March 19, 2011 shows a tank on fire in Libya. But the YPG/PKK sympathisers have tried to pass it off as an "attack on a Turkish Armed Forces tank."

Another photo claiming "Turkish soldiers held in Afrin" turned out to have been shot in the aftermath of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.

Vow to move to Manbij and beyond

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed the military campaign will continue to target terrorists on Turkey's border with Syria.

On Friday, Erdogan said, "We will continue Operation Olive Branch, which is in its seventh day today, until all our goals are met. After that, we will cleanse Manbij of terrorists, as was promised to us."

"No one should be disturbed by this. Because the real owners of Manbij aren't these terrorists, it's our Arab brothers there. After that, we will continue our struggle up to the Iraqi border (and) until no terrorist are left."

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the United States needs to withdraw from northern Syria's Manbij region "immediately".