Erdogan: Turkey to Launch Afrin Operation Within Days

Turkey will launch a military operation in a Kurdish-held region of northern Syria “in the coming days,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

The assault on Afrin, which is controlled by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, aims to “purge terror” from areas near Turkey’s southern borders, Erdogan said in comments carried by the AP.

Erdogan said that the operation in Afrin would be a continuation of Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria in 2016, which aimed at combating the so-called Islamic State and deterring Kurdish advances near Turkey’s border.

Turkish troops are already positioned in areas overlooking the Kurdish enclave after deploying in Idlib province in October to monitor a de-escalation zone agreement in the area.

This is not the first time that Erdogan has declared that his forces will clear out Afrin of what he describes as terrorist groups but Sunday’s comments have made the prospects of a military operation against Afrin imminent.

A YPG spokesman in Afrin, Rojhat Roj, told the AP that clashes broke out early Sunday between Turkish troops and a YPG unit near the border with Turkey. At least one YPG fighter was killed and two civilians were injured by shelling on Afrin on Sunday, according to Roj.

U.S. Coalition Building New Border Force in Syria

The U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS said on Sunday that it is working with Kurdish forces in Syria to build a 30,000-strong border force, Reuters reported.

The personnel will be deployed at the borders of a region controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria.

The border guards will deploy “along the border with Turkey to the north, the Iraqi border to the southeast and along the Euphrates River Valley, which broadly acts as the dividing line separating the U.S.-backed SDF and Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia,” Reuters said.

“They will be providing border security through professionally securing checkpoints and conducting counter-IED operations,” the coalition’s Public Affairs Office said in a statement carried by Reuters.

SDF veterans will comprise about half of the border force. Recruitment of the other half is still underway, according to Reuters.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon told Agence France-Presse that approximately 230 individuals are training right now to join the force.

Plans to establish the border force have alarmed Turkey, which regards the YPG militia in Syria as a terrorist group. Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that the U.S. “is taking worrying steps to legitimize this organization and make it lasting in the region”.

“It is absolutely not possible for this to be accepted,” he said.

Government Forces Approaching Idlib Airbase

Syrian troops and allied forces approached a strategic airbase in southern Idlib on Sunday after capturing adjacent territory in Aleppo province, Agence France-Presse reported.

Over the weekend, government forces pushed toward the airbase from the north and east after seizing at least 79 villages in the southern parts of Aleppo province, in an area near the Abu Zuhour military airport, Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) told AFP.

Citing the Syrian pro-government al-Watan newspaper, AFP said that pro-government forces were now “encircling” the airbase.

The government lost control of the Abu Zuhour air base to al-Qaida-linked militants in 2015. Recapturing the military base has been a key objective of a government onslaught on Idlib that started late last month.

Pro-government forces briefly breached rebel defenses south of the airbase last week but were later driven from the area by a rebel counteroffensive that has since been defeated.

If it recaptures Abu Zuhour, the government will gain its first military base in Idlib, which would position it to make a move deeper into Idlib’s interior.

Recommended Reads

• AFP: Anti-Jihadist Coalition Looks to Future Role After I.S. Defeat
• NPR: Syria Violence Sends Thousands of Civilians Fleeing ‘De-Escalation Zone’
• The Huffington Post: The Point of Separation Between the U.S. and Russia in Syria
• Al-Monitor: U.S. Touts Military Build-Up Against Iran in Syria
• The New York Times: Toronto Suddenly Has a New Craving: Syrian Food