The fighting has led to tens of thousands of people displacing their homes and the villages of Darbasiyyeh and Ras Al-Ayn in northeastern Syria on the border with Turkey have almost been emptied of people, writes SOHR, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory.

The death toll is expected to rise

Many people, including at least ten civilians, have been killed in the Turkish offensive, but the death toll is expected to rise. According to the Turkish Ministry of Defense, 200 fighting Kurds have been killed, Reuters reports, but the information is unconfirmed.

In Turkey, five people, including one child, were killed in grenade fire from Kurdish militia, Turkish authorities say. In addition, six members of a Turkish-backed militia participating in the offensive have been killed.

Unexpected hard resistance

SDF, Syrian Democartic Forces, has up to 40,000 soldiers, according to Kurdish sources. However, due to a lack of heavy military equipment, they are said to have difficulty resisting attacks with Turkish tanks and fighter jets.

But according to SVT's emailed reporter Thomas Thorén, who is in the area, the Turkish military has been met by a surprisingly stubborn opposition.

"Many people expected to be able to advance quickly, but so far the Syrian-Kurdish forces have retained their positions and stopped to fight," he says in SVT Morgonstudion.

But he believes that the strength of the relationship is obviously in Turkey's favor.

- The Syrian-Kurdish forces can only fight on the ground, so Turkey can really only wait for the development. If no superpower takes them in the ear and stops them, they can slowly conquer area by area.

Military support from the United States

During the SDF's successful efforts to expel the terrorist movement IS from the region, they relied on military support from the United States, which withdrew from the relevant areas prior to the Turkish offensive.

The Kurdish autonomy calls on its residents to resist the Turkish military.

The US wants to see sanctions against Turkey

29 Republicans in the US House of Representatives say they want to impose sanctions on Turkey. Republican Liz Cheney writes in a statement on Twitter that "Turkey must accept the consequences of having mercilessly attacked our Kurdish allies in northern Syria."