Military operation in Syria's Afrin has begun: Erdogan

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday the military operation in Syria's Afrin has "actively" started.

"The Afrin operation has actively begun on the field. The Manbij operation will follow," he said during a televised speech in the Aegean province of Kutahya.

Erdogan said that Turkey is determined to ensure its national security and to clear its borders of the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is considered as the Syrian affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) by Ankara.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, has been conducting armed violence against Ankara since July 2015 after a brief reconciliation period.

Turkey has in recent days sent dozens of military vehicles and hundreds of troops to the border area amid repeated threats from top officials that an operation could be launched at any moment.

Trucks drive past by a military post near the town of Hassa on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, Turkey, January 20, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Turkish forces have over the last two days shelled YPG targets around Afrin and also mobilized pro-Ankara rebel fighters in Syria for the offensive.

"The promises made to us over Manbij were not kept. So nobody can object if we do what is necessary," said Erdogan, referring to past American assurances that the YPG would move out of Afrin.

"Later we will, step by step, clear our country up to the Iraqi border from this terror filth that is trying to besiege our country."

He added that Turkey would "step by step" destroy a "terror corridor" that he said had been set up by the YPG.

Turkey accuses the YPG of being the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a rebellion in the Turkish southeast for more than three decades and is regarded as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

But the YPG has been the key ally of Turkey's fellow NATO member the United States in the fight against ISIL jihadists, playing a key role in pushing the extremists out of their Syrian strongholds.

Source(s): AFP ,Xinhua News Agency