Footage recorded on Jan. 10, 2023 shows a sniper of the Kurdish Afrin Defense Forces (HRE) using a thermal riflescope to engage Turkish or pro Turkish mercenaries at night. The incident likely occurred in Syria.

The HRE was founded after Turkish-backed jihadists occupied the Afrin district as a result of Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch (2018) incursion into Syria pushed out the Kurdish YPG forces and displaced approximately 300,000 Kurdish civilians.

Turkey filled the abandoned villages with Islamist fighters, including al Qaeda and ISIS, retreating from embattled areas like Eastern Ghouta that were being retaken by Russia and the Syrian Army. Turkey rearms and rebrands the jihadists as Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (TFSA) and uses them as proxy militia forces to destabilize Kurdish areas, pressure Assad, and has even deployed these mercenaries to Libya in support of the GNA.