Turkey announced that it had launched "Operation Olive Branch" on January 20 to clear Syria's Afrin region of the YPG/PKK and Daesh, which Turkey considers to be a threat to its national security. TRT World has the latest updates on the operation.
Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch at 14:00 GMT on January 20 to clear Syria's Afrin region of the YPG/PKK, after months of warnings on the issue.
The operation started days after the US announced the formation of a 30,000-strong "Border Security Force" composed of YPG/SDF militants near Turkey's border in northern Syria.
The announcement was met with alarm by Ankara, which considers the YPG to be the Syrian branch of the PKK, which is a designated terrorist organisation in Turkey, the US and the EU.
Turkey’s biggest security concern is the YPG carving out an autonomous territory near its southeastern border.
The US supports the SDF, a YPG-dominated group it founded in 2015, in northeast Syria. Afrin, on the northwest, has no such support from the US but a couple hundred of Russian soldiers are based in the region.
TRT World has the latest on the operation:
