Turkey Sends Special Forces for Next Stage of Afrin Aggression
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Turkey on Monday deployed police special forces to Afrin for a “new battle” in its five-week incursion into the Syrian northwestern region.
“The entrance of the special forces is in preparation for the new battle that is approaching,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV broadcaster, according to Reuters.
The report added that gendarmerie and police special forces teams entered Afrin from two places to the northwest of the region, saying they would take part in urban fighting and holding villages which Turkish forces have occupied.
Most of the larger towns in Afrin region, including Afrin town itself, remain under the People's Protection Units (YPG) control.
Turkey launched the so-called Operation Olive Branch in Syria's Afrin on January 20 in a bid to eliminate the YPG, which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Turkey has warned that the Afrin offensive could expand to the nearby Syrian city of Manbij.
Damascus on February 1 complained to the UN about Turkey's military campaign in northern Syria, denouncing the operation as "an assault and occupation" of the Syrian territory.
