Syria will respond to a Turkish aggression on any part of its territory with "all legitimate means" available, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday in his first remarks since deploying troops near the border to support Ankara's Kurdish rivals. 

The move came after an agreement between Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to fend off an cross-border assault launched by Turkey against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militias on October 9. 

We "will respond to it and confront it, in all its forms, anywhere in Syria, using all legitimate means at our disposal," Assad told Iraqi national security adviser Faleh al-Fayad, according to state media. 

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Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has met with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey to persuade him to halt an offensive against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, but Turkish officials said the action would continue regardless.

Erdogan on Wednesday said that he would not meet Pence and rejected any negotiations, telling parliament the only way to solve Syria's problems was for the Kurdish forces to "lay down their arms... destroy all their traps and get out of the safe zone that we have designated." His position, however, was later reversed by his office.  

The Turkish assault has created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with 200,000 civilians taking flight, a security alert over thousands of ISIL fighters abandoned in Kurdish jails, and a political maelstrom at home for U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump has been accused of abandoning Kurdish-led fighters, Washington's main partners in the battle to dismantle ISIL's self-declared caliphate in Syria, by withdrawing troops from the border as Ankara launched its offensive last week.

Trump defended his move on Wednesday as "strategically brilliant." He said he thought Pence and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan would have a successful meeting, but warned of sanctions and tariffs that "will be devastating to Turkey's economy" otherwise.  

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Embattled towns

Erdogan has dismissed the sanctions and rejected a global chorus of calls to halt the offensive, which Turkey says will create a "safe zone"  extending 20 miles (32 kilometers) into northeast Syria to ensure the return of millions of Syrian refugees and clear the area of Kurdish militia Ankara views as terrorists.

Ankara views the U.S.-backed YPG as a terrorist organization because of its link to Kurdish militants waging an insurgency inside Turkey, and had been infuriated by Washington's support.

Turkey's operation has allowed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to send his Russian-backed forces to an area that had been beyond his control for years in the more than eight-year-old Syrian war.

It also prompted the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), of which the Kurdish YPG is the main component, to strike a deal with Damascus.

Russia has promised Turkey that the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia targeted by the offensive will not be in the Syrian territories across the border, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the BBC on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman said Syria should get control over its border with Turkey as part of any settlement of the conflict in the region.

Ankara had previously said it has taken control of Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad, two key towns along the border.

Syrian troops accompanied by Russian forces have meanwhile entered Kobani, a strategic border city and a potential flashpoint for a wider conflict, said the British-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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Pivot to Russia

The Kurdish-led administration in the region said the Turkish offensive had killed 218 civilians, including 18 children since it started a week ago. The fighting has also wounded more than 650 people, it said.

Turkish authorities say 20 people have been killed in Turkey by bombardment from Syria, including eight people who were killed in a mortar attack on the town of Nusaybin by YPG militants on Friday, according to the local governor's office.

In Geneva, humanitarian agencies said they were struggling to meet the needs of up to 200,000 civilians who had fled the fighting and reported water shortages in the Syrian city of Hasaka.

The operation has also created a land-rush between Turkey and Russia – now the undisputed foreign powers in the area – to partition Kurdish areas that were formerly under U.S protection.

Russia, Assad's most powerful ally, has called the offensive "unacceptable" and said it must be limited in time and scale.

Erdogan, who has forged close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin through defense and energy cooperation, as well as joint efforts for a political solution to the Syrian crisis, will travel to Sochi on October 22 for emergency talks on Syria.

(With input from Reuters, AFP)