Turkish-led forces secured the city of Afrin on Monday after a deadly two-month assault that dealt the Kurds a major blow and could reshape the region. Opposition groups supporting the capture of Afrin from the Kurds condemned looting carried out by Ankara’s Syrian proxies when they seized the northern city Sunday. The most significant control of territory change in Syria this year coincided with the regime’s grinding down of Eastern Ghouta, a six-year-old rebel bastion near Damascus. President Bashar al-Assad visited reconquered areas there Sunday to hail his troops’ advances, which led tens of thousands of civilians to flee to government areas after years of siege. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) could do little when Syrian Arab fighters backed by NATO’s second-largest army thrust into Afrin, nearly two months into a massive assault on the region. The fighters, mostly former anti-Assad rebels, celebrated their victory by destroying the statue of Kurdish hero Kawa and looting shops and other property. The pillaging drew widespread condemnation, including from Syrian opposition groups supporting the Turkish intervention. “The looting and stealing of private and public property is a crime,” said Mohamed Alloush, a key figure in the Jaish al-Islam rebel group. “All those who took part in this decadence need to have their hands slapped hard.”