Turkey detains 300 people over its military offensive in Syria

Turkish authorities have detained 311 people for allegedly engaging in “terrorist propaganda” through social media postings critical of Turkey’s military offensive into the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin, AP reported. The Interior Ministry said on Monday that the suspects, who are accused of supporting the Syrian Kurdish militia, were detained in the past week. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, an extension of its outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting within Turkey and has branded the Syrian group as terrorists. Turkey launched a military operation codenamed Operation Olive Branch on January 20 to clear YPG fighters from Afrin. Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has criticized the detentions as the Turkish government’s “witch hunt against critics.”