Turkey's President Erdogan said on Sunday that allied Syrian forces have taken control of town center of Afrin, driving out  theKurdish militia.

 

A war monitor had earlier reported the news on Sunday.

 

“Fighting is ongoing inside the city, where Turkish forces and allied rebels have seized some neighborhoods,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

 

Pro-Ankara rebels said they “broke into the city from the eastern and western sides” to seize the neighborhoods of Ashrafieh and Jamiliyyeh.

 

More than 1,500 Kurdish fighters have been killed in a two-month assault by Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels on the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, the monitor also said.

 

Most of them were killed air strikes and artillery fire. More than 400 pro-Ankara rebels had been killed since January 20, the Observatory said.