ISTANBUL — Turkey’s president said Sunday the Turkish military and allied Syrian forces have taken “total” control of the town centre of Afrin, the target of a nearly two-month-old offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia, which said fighting was still underway. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the Turkish flag and the flag of the Syrian opposition fighters have been raised in the town, previously controlled by the Kurdish militia known as the People’s Defence Units, or YPG. Turkey views the Kurdish forces in the Afrin enclave along the border as terrorists linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a decades-long insurgency within Turkey’s borders. Syrian State TV on Sunday broadcast footage of a long line of vehicles and civilians on foot leaving Afrin. Turkey also fears the establishment of a Kurdish self-ruled zone in Syria that could inspire its own Kurdish minority to press for greater autonomy.

Source: National Post March 18, 2018 07:58 UTC