Afrin Canton was captured by the Turkish Land Forces and Syrian National Army (SNA) as result of the 2018 Afrin offensive. Tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees fled from Afrin City before its capture by the SNA in March 2018,[20][21] and the YPG vowed to retake it. The YPG subsequently announced its intention to start a guerrilla war in Afrin Canton,[22][23] leading to the SDF insurgency in Northern Aleppo.