Turkey launches ground incursion into Kurdish-held northern Syria
Ankara— Turkish Foreign minister issued a stern warning on Sunday that any group opposed to its military incursion into Kurdish-held northern Syria "would be treated as terrorists". Earlier on Sunday, after Turkish ground forces pushed into Afrin province, France called for restraint and a UN emergency meeting. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official visit to Iraq, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara expected France to support the fellow Nato member state’s operation. Under what Ankara has called "Operation Olive Branch", Turkish forces bombarded suspected YPG positions in Afrin with artillery and air strikes ahead of Sunday's ground assault, opening a new front in the nearly seven-year-old Syrian war. The Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia, supported by the US but viewed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, said it had repulsed the Turkish forces and their allies after fierce clashes. Turkey is targeting the US-backed fighters at a time when ties with a...
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