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Agence France-Presse

Turkish ground troops entered Syria on Sunday to push an offensive against Kurdish militia as rocket fire hit a border town in apparent retaliation.
Turkey on Saturday launched operation “Olive Branch” seeking to oust from the Afrin region of northern Syria the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) which Ankara considers a terror group.
But the campaign risks further increasing tensions with Turkey’s Nato ally the United States – which has supported the YPG in the fight against Islamic State – and also needs at least the tacit support of Russia to succeed.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said troops crossed into the YPG-controlled region in Syria at 08:05 GMT, the Dogan news agency reported.

Turkish artillery and warplanes pounded YPG sites around Afrin and 153 targets, including YPG refuges and weapons stores have been hit, according to the army.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the Turkish troops, whose number was not specified, were advancing Western-backed rebels and were already 5km (3 miles) inside Syria.
An AFP correspondent on the southwestern edge of the Afrin region saw a warplane bombing the western outskirts of the area early on Sunday.

A small unit from a Turkish-backed rebel group was manning a monitoring point on a hilltop overlooking several Kurdish-controlled villages below.
The operation is Turkey’s second major incursion into Syria during the seven-year civil war after the August 2016-March 2017 Euphrates Shield campaign in an area to the east of Afrin against the YPG and IS.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had repeatedly vowed that Turkey would root out the “nests of terror” in Syria of the YPG, which Ankara accuses of being the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).


The PKK, which has waged a rebellion in the Turkish southeast for more than three decades, is regarded as a terror group not just by Ankara and but also its Western allies.
Afrin is an enclave of YPG control, cut off from the longer strip of northern Syria that the group controls to the east extending to the Iraqi border. Turkey wants the YPG to retreat east of the Euphrates River.
Yildirim was quoted as saying that the Turkish forces aimed to create a security zone some 30km (18 miles) inside Syria.
The YPG said after the first strikes on Saturday 10 people were killed, including seven civilians. The Turkish army said there were casualties but insisted they were all members either of the YPG or the PKK.
A YPG spokesman claimed Turkish forces tried to enter Afrin “but we blocked the attack”.

In a sign of the risks to Turkey, four rockets fired by the YPG hit the border town of Kilis early on Sunday, damaging one building and lightly wounding a woman.
“No one lost their life,” Kilis governor Mehmet Tekinarslan said, quoted by Dogan. “They can fire one rocket at us and we will fire 100 back. There is no need to worry.”


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Syrian conflict

Turkey attacks: jets bomb Kurds while ground forces enter Syria in new offensive called ‘Operation Olive Branch’

Smoke billows on the Syrian side of the border at Hassa near Hatay, southern Turkey as Turkish jet fighters hit People's Protection Units (YPG) positions. Photo: AFP

A truck, part of a convoy, carrying military pickup trucks with machine guns attached is seen on the outskirts of the village of Sugedigi, Turkey, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018. Several military trucks carrying tanks and other armored vehicles crossed into Syria late Saturday during anticipated ground offensive into a Syrian Kurdish enclave. Turkish jets pounded earlier the Kurdish-run enclave of Afrin in northern Syria which Turkey has vowed to clear of a Syrian Kurdish group which Turkey considers to be "terrorists." (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

TOPSHOT - Turkish-backed fighters from the Free Syrian Army stand in the Tal Malid area, north of Aleppo, as they fire towards Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) positions in the village of Um al-Hosh, in the area of Afrin, on January 20, 2018. Turkish forces began shelling the YPG enclave of Afrin from frontier Hatay province, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. Turkey has said repeatedly this week that an operation to oust the YPG from Afrin is imminent and has massed troops and armour on the border. / AFP PHOTO / Nazeer al-Khatib

A Turkish fighter jet flies over the town of Hassa on the Turkish-Syrian border in Hatay province, Turkey January 20, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

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A Syrian walks through the destruction of the Salaheddine neighbourhood in the eastern Aleppo, Syria. Photo: AP

Syrian walk by posters of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018. Syria said on Thursday its air defense would shoot down any Turkish jets that carry out attacks within Syria, a stark warning as tensions soar over apparent preparations by the Turkish military to invade a northern Syrian Kurdish enclave. Arabic on the left read, "Aleppo is your city and you need to defend it." (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Turkey’s President Erdogan threatens to ‘drown’ US-backed Kurdish force in Syria

Fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces ride atop an armoured vehicle in Raqqa in October, after the city was liberated from Islamic State militants. The SDF is mainly made up of Kurdish fighters. Photo: Reuters

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talks to supporters of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), at a rally in Yozgat, eastern Turkey, Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018. Erdogan said Sunday the country will launch a military assault on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria "in the coming days," and urged the U.S. to support its efforts. (Pool Photo via AP)

FILE PHOTO: A fighter of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) carries a weapon as he stands near a military vehicle in Raqqa, Syria, October 16, 2017. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo

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A man inspects the rubble of a building following an explosion in a rebel-held area of the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on January 7, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Zein Al RIFAI

Syrian emergency personnel carry the body of a victim following an explosion in a rebel-held area of the northwestern city of Idlib on January 7, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / Zein Al RIFAI

Syrian emergency personnel search for victims following an explosion in a rebel-held area of the northwestern city of Idlib on January 7, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / OMAR HAJ KADOUR

A picture shows the damage following a massive explosion in a rebel-held area of the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on Sunday. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Mysterious drone swarm attacks military base in Syria, exposing Russian vulnerability

Moscow says the US supplied the technology behind the drone attack, but Washington denies involvement

epaselect epa06382902 Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with Russian servicemen at the Hmeimim (also Khmeimim) Air Base, south-east of the city of Latakia in Syria, 11 December 2017. Media reports state Russian President Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit to Syria where he met with Syrian Presidents Bashar al-Assad and ordered a withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria. EPA-EFE/MICHAEL KLIMENTYEV / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN / POOL MANDATORY CREDIT

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) visits the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria on December 11. Photo: EPA

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Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on Saturday, conducting air strikes against Kurdish positions, while ground forces entered the country on Sunday
