Pro-Syrian government forces to enter Afrin: State TV

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Militias allied with the Syrian government will enter the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in the northwest of the country to help the local Kurdish forces repel Turkish military operation in the area, state media reported on Monday.

Turkey and their allied Syrian rebel groups have been conducting a military offensive in the Kurdish-held canton to gain control of the border area and drive out the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters. Ankara views the YPG and its all-female brigade, the YPJ, as a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which have been waging a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.

The Syrian government and Kurdish administration in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) have at times expressed views on the future of the country which have been at odds with each other, and their respective forces have occasionally clashed over the past few years. Both sides, nevertheless, have found common ground in the desire to drive back Turkish troops and their allied rebel groups leading the incursion into Syria’s northwest.

“Forces will arrive in Afrin in the coming hours to support the steadfastness of its people in confronting the aggression which Turkish regime fighters have launched on the region,” Syria’s agency SANA reported.

On Sunday, a senior Syrian Kurdish official announced that the YPG and pro-Syrian government forces had reached an agreement to allow the Syrian army to enter Afrin, suggesting the move would occur within 48 hours.

With this agreement, Turkey finds itself not only fighting the Kurdish YPG forces but now a new front against Syrian troops aligned with Damascus on its southern border.

In a statement to Kurdistan 24, YPG spokesperson in Afrin, Brusk Hasaka denied any agreements signed with Damascus to deploy Syrian government forces to Afrin.

He explained it was the people of Aleppo who would join the YPG to defend the country against the Turkish aggression.

Editing by Nadia Riva