Smoke rises at Mount Bursaya as Turkish military aircrafts strike YPG/PKK targets and secure the mountain. January 28, 2018. (AA)

On Monday, Turkish army announced the capture of another strategic peak as efforts to clear YPG/PKK  from the Syria-Turkey border continue.

Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch in Syria’s Afrin is being carried out to get rid of YPG/PKK from areas along the Turkish border to bring security to the region. Turkey sees YPG as an extension of PKK, a designated terror group.

Afrin has been a major hideout for the YPG/PKK since July 2012, when Bashar al Assad’s regime in Syria left the city to the terror group without putting up a fight.

Hill 915 was targeted in the morning in southern Raju township in western Afrin and later was taken under control along with all surrounding checkpoints, a security source told Anadolu Agency, requesting not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.

TRT World’s Hasan Abdullah reports from Ankara.

At least 19 more suspected YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists have been “neutralised” in Syria, the Turkish General Staff said on Monday.

So far 616 terrorists have been neutralised since the beginning of the operation.

On January 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch along with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to clear YPG/PKK from northwestern Syria.

Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralised” in their statements to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.

In a statement, the military said that Turkish Armed Forces had destroyed nine more terrorist targets in airstrikes that were carried out during the day.

According to the Turkish General Staff, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkey’s borders and the region as well as to protect Syrians from terrorist oppression and cruelty.