Turkey to expand ops against Kurds
AFRIN/ISTANBUL: Turkey on Monday vowed to expand its operation in northern Syria to other Kurdish-held areas after its troops and allied forces seized control Afrin city, a major blow to the Kurds.
A day after Turkish-led forces entered the city virtually unopposed, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the fight would now be taken to other Kurdish areas of northern Syria.
“We will continue this process until we entirely eliminate this corridor, including in Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli,” said the Turkish leader, in a characteristically bullish mood.
In Afrin, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units could do little when Syrian Arab fighters backed by Nato’s second-largest army thrust into the city on Sunday.
The fighters, mostly former rebels who fought President Bashar al-Assad, celebrated their victory by destroying the statue of Kurdish hero Kawa and looting shops and other property.
ASSAD FILMS HIMSELF DRIVING TO GHOUTA
President Bashar al-Assad flaunted government advances in Syria’s seven-year war by filming himself driving to meet frontline soldiers near Damascus, making a video of the journey from the city centre into areas recently recaptured.
“The road is open... everything is running now in the city and in Syria,” he said in the video, describing a road that had previously been cut by sniper fire and saying it was now easier to travel around the country.
The video, released overnight after a trip on Sunday, showed Assad in sunglasses at the wheel of his Honda car, speaking about the government’s increasing strength.