More than 150,000 people in Syria's Afrin displaced: Kurdish official, monitor

People sit in a truck with their belongings in the north east of Afrin, Syria March 15, 2018. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Thomson Reuters

BEIRUT (Reuters) - More than 150,000 people have been displaced in the last few days from Syria's Afrin town, a senior Kurdish official and a monitoring group said on Saturday.

Hevi Mustafa, a top member of the civil authority governing the Afrin region, said people were fleeing the main town to other Kurdish-held parts of the region and to government territory.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Turkish warplanes and artillery struck the town overnight, and at least 150,000 had fled since Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ellen Francis; Editing by Mark Potter)

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