Turkey launched the ground assault to drive Kurdish forces away from its southern borders and prevent the creation of Kurdish-dominated statelet which could further destabilise Kurdish-populated areas in Turkey. He added that the goal was not to occupy parts of Syria but to win over “hearts” of the population. SDF says Afrin will be a Turkish ‘quagmire’Also on Monday, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Ankara’s attack amounted to “clear support” to the “Islamic State” (IS) terror militia. The Syrian SDF force is largely made-up of Kurdish YPG units, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist organization. A defense ministry spokesman said that it was not yet clear when the pictures were taken, while foreign ministry officials said the situation remained unclear.

Source: Pakistan Today January 23, 2018 06:11 UTC