Rajo, Syria

Rajo راجو
Town
Rajo
Coordinates: 36°40′32″N 36°39′50″E / 36.67556°N 36.66389°E / 36.67556; 36.66389
Country	Syria
Governorate	Aleppo Governorate
District	Afrin District
Control	Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army
Population (2004 census)
• Total	4,000
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Rajo (Arabic: راجو‎, Kurdish: Reco‎) or Raju is a town in Afrin District, Aleppo Governorate, northwestern Syria. Rajo is the center of a sub-district of the same name with approximately 65 villages and farms around it. The town has around 4,000 inhabitants while the total population of the sub-district is 21,955 (2004 official census).

Rajo is the administrative center of Nahiya Rajo of the Afrin District.

Rajo is an old settlement that lies on the Baylan plateau to the west of Kurd Mountain. The name Rajo originated from an old Kurdish family of the same name of the trunk Schaykh(k)an. Over Rajo, the Baghdad Railway runs since 1912.

Syrian Civil War

On 7 September 2016, at around 18:00 local time, the Turkish army started shelling the village of Sorkê located 7 km west-southwest of Rajo with howitzers, mortar shells and tanks. Six members of the Kurdish security forces were killed.^[1][2]

On 3 February 2018, armed clashes broke out in Bulbul and Rajo between the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces’ People's Protection Units (YPG) amidst the Turkish military intervention to capture the Kurdish-held city of Afrin. ^[3] On 3 March, Turkey-led forces captured Rajo, one of the major Kurdish strongholds in west Afrin. It was besieged on three sides and fell with no significant resistance.^[4][5]

References