Pro-Syrian government forces have entered the contested canton of Afrin to help Kurdish forces defend against a Turkish offensive - a further escalation in Syria’s already complex civil war.

Footage broadcast by Hezbollah and Syrian regime-allied outlets showed convoys of tanks carrying Syrian flags and soldiers brandishing weapons entering the northwestern part of the country from Aleppo on Tuesday. Syrian state media reported they had been targeted by Turkish shellfire.

The new forces are mostly believed to be made up of the Shia Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU).

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“The Syrian government has responded to the call of the duty and sent military units on this day... to deploy along the border and take part in defending the unity of Syria's territory and borders,” Nouri Mahmoud, a spokesperson for the Kurdish YPG militia, said in a statement.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the air and ground offensive Operation Olive Branch last month, opening a new front in Syria’s bloody conflict which has already killed dozens of civilians and fighters on both sides.

Turkey has been widely accused of not properly vetting the Sunni Syrian fighters it is using in the offensive. Both sides have accused the other of war crimes, targeting civilians and mutilating the bodies of fallen soldiers.

Turkey views the Kurdish YPG as an extension of its own separatist PKK, a group designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara as well as the EU and US.

Shape Created with Sketch. Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria – in pictures Show all 9 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria – in pictures 1/9 Smoke billows following a Turkish airstrike on a village in the Afrin district, on 28 January, 2018. Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air strikes AFP 2/9 Smoke billows from surrounding villages during the Turkish military operation against the Kurdish enclave on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty 3/9 Twenty-year old Kifah al-Moussa, a Syrian Arab woman living among the Kurds of Afrin province, was working on a chicken farm in the village of Maryameen when a Turkish aircraft bombed the building at midday on 21 January, wounding her in the chest. When she recovered consciousness, she found eight people from one family lying dead around her Yara Ismail 4/9 Mohamed Hussein, a 58-year-old Kurdish farmer, lies in the Afrin hospital, wounded in the head and eye after his home was bombed by Turkish aircraft on the second night of the attack Yara Ismail 5/9 Syrian Kurds sit on benches overlooking a street in Afrin, on 28 January, 2018. Above is a memorial to ‘martyrs’ who died in the fight against Isis AFP/Getty 6/9 Smoke is seen rising on the Syrian side of the border, at Hassa, near Hatay, southern Turkey as Turkish jet fighters hit People's Protection Unit (YPG) positions, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty 7/9 A Turkish made T-155 Firtina (Storm) howitzer is dispatched to the border at Hassa near Hatay, southern Turkey, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty 8/9 A Turkish soldier waves a flag on Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters 9/9 Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army fighters are seen in Barsaya mountain, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters 1/9 Smoke billows following a Turkish airstrike on a village in the Afrin district, on 28 January, 2018. Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air strikes AFP 2/9 Smoke billows from surrounding villages during the Turkish military operation against the Kurdish enclave on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty 3/9 Twenty-year old Kifah al-Moussa, a Syrian Arab woman living among the Kurds of Afrin province, was working on a chicken farm in the village of Maryameen when a Turkish aircraft bombed the building at midday on 21 January, wounding her in the chest. When she recovered consciousness, she found eight people from one family lying dead around her Yara Ismail 4/9 Mohamed Hussein, a 58-year-old Kurdish farmer, lies in the Afrin hospital, wounded in the head and eye after his home was bombed by Turkish aircraft on the second night of the attack Yara Ismail 5/9 Syrian Kurds sit on benches overlooking a street in Afrin, on 28 January, 2018. Above is a memorial to ‘martyrs’ who died in the fight against Isis AFP/Getty 6/9 Smoke is seen rising on the Syrian side of the border, at Hassa, near Hatay, southern Turkey as Turkish jet fighters hit People's Protection Unit (YPG) positions, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty 7/9 A Turkish made T-155 Firtina (Storm) howitzer is dispatched to the border at Hassa near Hatay, southern Turkey, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty 8/9 A Turkish soldier waves a flag on Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters 9/9 Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army fighters are seen in Barsaya mountain, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters

The YPG and broader Arab-Kurdish coalition Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have won widespread Western support over the past few years as the most effective ground force against Isis.

In January the US pledged continued support for the YPG and SDF to ensure the jihadi militants do not form a resurgent movement, a strategy which enraged Turkey and contributed to the decision to launch the new offensive on Afrin.

The entry of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al Assad into the new theatre raises the spectre of a wider escalation.

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The deal was first reported on Sunday, when a Kurdish official said there was a agreement with Mr Assad's government for the army to enter Afrin and deploy along the border - but that the agreement did not extend to political relations between Damascus and the YPG.

The two sides have at times been in direct conflict and at others have formed realpolitik alliances during the seven-year-old conflict.

The move flies in the face of remarks from Mr Erdogan earlier on Tuesday, said Ankara had worked alongside the Syrian government’s ally Russia to prevent any deployment by pro-Syrian government forces.

On Monday, Turkey warned it was not afraid to confront government forces if they entered Afrin to help the YPG.

Despite international calls to halt the offensive, President Erdogan has remained bullish, repeatedly threatening that his forces could extend their offensive as far east as Manbij – which could bring them into direct conflict with the US-backed SDF coalition and stationed US troops.

News agencies contributed to this report </s> KOCABEYLI, Turkey -- Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria on Saturday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to expand Turkey's military border operations against a Kurdish group that has been the U.S.'s key Syria ally in the war on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The raids came on the heels of a week of sharp threats by the Turkish government, promising to clear the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, from Afrin and its surrounding countryside, also called Afrin. Turkey's military is calling the campaign Operation Olive Branch.

Turkey says the YPG -- a group it considers a terrorist organization -- is an extension of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group that it is fighting inside its own borders, and it has found common cause with Syrian opposition groups who view the YPG as a counter-revolutionary force in Syria's multi-sided civil war.

Associated Press journalists at the Turkish border saw jets bombing positions in the direction of Afrin, as a convoy of armed pick-up trucks and buses believed to be carrying Syrian opposition fighters traveled along the border. Video from Turkey this week showed the military moving tanks to the frontier.

Rojhat Roj, a YPG spokesman, confirmed the strikes, saying they were the first by the Turkish military on the city. He said ten civilians were wounded, three seriously.

The Russian Defense Ministry said, meanwhile, that it was pulling back troops that had been deployed near Afrin, two days after Turkey's military and intelligence briefs travelled to Moscow to discuss the planned operation. It said the group of observers was being relocated to another area. It was not immediately clear how many troops were affected by the move.

The YPG is the driving force behind a coalition of north Syrian forces allied with the U.S. to battle the Islamic State group. With U.S. support, including around 2,000 embedded forces, the coalition now controls close to a quarter of Syrian territory, concentrated mostly to the north and east of the Euphrates River.

Turkish leaders were infuriated by an announcement by the U.S. military six days ago that it was going to create a 30,000-strong border force with the Kurdish fighters to secure northern Syria. Days later, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that the U.S. would maintain a military presence with the Kurds for the foreseeable future.

Speaking in the city of Kutahya in western Turkey, Erdogan announced an expansion to Turkish operations in Syria, promising to move on the Kurdish-controlled town of Manbij and its surrounding countryside after completing operations in Afrin. The operation would force out the Kurdish militia from all positions west of the Euphrates River.

In 2016, Turkey trained and equipped opposition forces to drive Kurdish fighters out of parts of north Syria, driving a wedge between two enclaves along the Turkish frontier. Turkish ground forces, including tanks and artillery, crossed into Syria with the fighters to establish a zone flanked by Afrin and Manbij that now serves as hub for Turkish operations inside the war-torn country.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the strikes on Afrin marked the start of a campaign to "eliminate the PYD and PKK and Daesh elements in Afrin," referring to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and the Kurdistan Worker's Party respectively, and using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. The PYD, PKK, and YPG all look to the Kurdish Marxist-nationalist leader Abdullah Öcalan as their guide. Öcalan is imprisoned by Turkey for waging a separatist movement in the eastern part of the country.

The air strikes were accompanied by waves of artillery strikes on the Afrin region.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the operation with Tillerson by phone on Sunday after the U.S. diplomat requested a conversation, Turkish officials said. They did not provide further details.

Any ground operation would entail considerable military and political risk for Ankara. Russia was keeping military observers in Afrin and lately firmed up its ties with the YPG, while Syria's government in Damascus said it would shoot down any Turkish jets on raids in the country. The YPG is estimated to have between 8,000 and 10,000 fighters in Afrin.

Turkey could also face blowback from the Kurdish insurgency within its own borders.

A ground offensive or continued shelling would exacerbate the poor humanitarian situation in Afrin, which is now home to at least 800,000 civilians, including many who arrived fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria.

Also on Saturday, Syrian government forces and supporting militias retook a key air base in northwest Syria lost to rebels in 2015. Syria's state broadcaster said Syrian troops fought their way into the strategic Abu Zuhour air base on Saturday, in Idlib province.

It was a coup for the government and allied militias who advanced swiftly to take the base in what was considered a stronghold for rebels and al-Qaida insurgents.

But the advance, which began in earnest in late December, has displaced more than 200,000 civilians, according to the U.N., exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation in the north of the country. </s> BEIRUT — The Turkish attack on the Syrian border town of Afrin, controlled by Kurdish fighters, has been long in coming — Turkish officials have been threatening to launch the offensive and preparing for it for months.

Some Turkish officials have said the main aim is the creation of a (20-mile) deep "secure zone" in Afrin, which Turkey says is essential for its security. Others say the operation aims to oust a militia of between 8,000 to 10,000 fighters affiliated with the People's Protection Units or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish group that has controlled territory in northern Syria and a proven top U.S. ally in fighting the Islamic State group.

TURKISH PRIME MINISTER BINALI YILDRIM said the strikes on Afrin marked the start of a campaign to "eliminate the PYD and PKK and Daesh elements in Afrin," referring to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and the Kurdistan Worker's Party respectively, and using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

THE FACTS: The Islamic State group is not known to have any presence in Afrin. Turkey has long maintained that it is in Syria to fight both the YPG and the Islamic State group, but its priority has largely been to limit Syrian Kurdish expansion and keep the powerful Kurdish militia from linking up its territory east and west of the Euphrates River. In 2016, Turkey launched a cross-border operation with Syrian opposition forces into Jarablus. That operation cleared the Turkish border and routed much of IS from the area but it also aimed to prevent the YPG from linking the Afrin and Kobani cantons.

In the current offensive, Turkish troops and the Syrian rebels it supports have only been targeting Kurdish fighters. A senior U.S. official says Washington is concerned that Turkey's military offensive in Afrin could distract from the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and could be exploited by extremists to re-supply or create safe havens.

TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER BEKIR BOZDAG has told a group of foreign journalists in Istanbul that "700 rockets attacks have taken place on the Turkish side of the border with Syria" in the past few years and that civilians have also been targeted. Other officials have said the aim is to secure Turkey's border and guard against "terror" attacks.

THE FACTS: The YPG is not known to have claimed or actively carried out any terror attacks inside Turkey. However, the Turkish government equates the YPG with the PKK and treats them as a single organization and the PKK has indeed carried out large-scale attacks in inside Turkey. Turkey claims that the PKK takes Afrin as an operating base and from it infiltrates into Turkey.

TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN said on Wednesday that "this operation will continue until every last member of the terrorist organization who has been equipped over the past few years (by America) with 5,000 trucks and 2,000 aircraft full of weapons is neutralized. We see it as our obligation to cleanse all terrorist organizations."

THE FACTS: While the U.S. has provided training, weapons and logistical support for the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces it dominates, that aid is not known to have extended west of the Euphrates to Afrin. Afrin has been a much more problematic Kurdish-controlled area for Washington, because it is a separate entity in western Syria. Turkey had said it will not accept YPG presence west of the Euphrates.

U.S. officials speaking in Ankara on Wednesday said Syrian Kurdish fighters in Afrin are not part of the Kurdish-led SDF, which drove IS from much of northeastern Syria with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. They denied the Turkish government's claims the U.S. had delivered thousands of trucks of weapons to the Syrian Kurdish forces, saying the bulk of the supplies went to U.S. forces and also included ammunition, food and humanitarian supplies. </s> Turkey said it had begun a ground incursion into the Kurdish enclave in Syria known as Afrin on Sunday, a day after intense aerial bombardment that signalled the opening of hostilities in a new phase of Ankara’s involvement in the war across the border.

The launch of the ground campaign by the Turkish military, alongside Syrian rebel factions under Ankara’s tutelage, came on the second day of a military offensive called “Operation Olive Branch” by the Turkish government, with dozens of airstrikes hitting more than 150 targets in the Kurdish-dominated district from late on Saturday afternoon.

Kurdish militias shelled the Turkish province of Kilis across the border in response.

A spokesman for the Kurdish militias that control the district said they had blocked the Turkish army-led initial attempt at a ground incursion on Sunday morning.

“The Turkish army and its Syrian agent factions have not entered one inch of Afrin district inside Syria,” the spokesman claimed.

Turkey says it is launching the Afrin campaign to clear out the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its political arm, the PYD, from the district. Ankara regards them as part of the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), a designated terror group that has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

Ankara has been angered by the YPG’s expansion in northern Syria and its alliance with the anti-Islamic State US-led coalition, which has backed and later armed the group as it spearheaded offensives against Isis in the region. The Afrin offensive came after a US announcement that it would train an army to patrol Syria’s borders that includes the YPG as a key component, which Turkey said was a national security threat.

Turkey intervened in the war in Syria in August 2016 to limit Kurdish expansion west of the Euphrates river and to drive Isis, which controlled key border towns, from the area as well. The Afrin offensive was launched after Ankara apparently obtained Russia’s blessing, dispatching its chief of intelligence and army’s chief of staff to Moscow in recent days.

It takes place against a backdrop of deep-seated tensions with Washington and continuing military losses for the Turkey-backed opposition in Syria, where Bashar al-Assad has inched closer to a military victory in the seven-year conflict, and peace talks brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran have gone nowhere.

Turkey sought to couch its military offensive as being both linked to the YPG’s presence in the area but also as a measure to protect the local populace from what an official described as an “authoritarian” group and almost as a nation-building exercise.

But the move has provoked fierce debate within Syria’s opposition, which has enjoyed broad Turkish backing for years. Some see it as a diversion from a campaign by the Syrian government against Idlib, the last province under rebel control, describing the Syrian rebel factions taking part in the offensive as mercenaries to Turkey’s will.

Others see the offensive as a necessary measure against the YPG, which they accuse of attempting to carve out a statelet in northern Syria, displacing local Arabs and which they believe to be secretly in league with the Assad regime.

Turkish officials pledged to pursue a campaign with limited civilian casualties, but said they believed the Kurdish militias would use human shields to protect key installations. A spokesman for the PYD, the political arm of the Kurdish militias, said Turkish airstrikes had killed six civilians on Saturday and wounded 13 others, in addition to killing three fighters from the YPG and its auxiliary female militia, the YPJ.

“The Turkish army wants through these military operations to inspire fear among civilians to force them from their lands and lay the ground for occupying the city,” the YPG branch in Afrin said in a statement, adding that it held both Ankara and Moscow accountable for the “massacres that will be committed in Afrin”. </s> By Mehmet Guzel and Philip Issa, The Associated Press

KOCABEYLI, Turkey — Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria on Saturday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to expand Turkey’s military border operations against a Kurdish group that has been the U.S.’s key Syria ally in the war on the Islamic State group.

The raids came on the heels of a week of sharp threats by the Turkish government, promising to clear the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, from Afrin and its surrounding countryside, also called Afrin. Turkey’s military is calling the campaign Operation Olive Branch.

Turkey says the YPG — a group it considers a terrorist organization — is an extension of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group that it is fighting inside its own borders, and it has found common cause with Syrian opposition groups who view the YPG as a counter-revolutionary force in Syria’s multi-sided civil war.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said a ground offensive could begin Sunday, but the state run Anadolu News Agency reported that Syrian forces backed by Ankara had already penetrated the Kurdish enclave. They crossed over from Turkey but were turned back by the YPG, according to Rojhat Roj, a Kurdish spokesman.

Associated Press journalists at the Turkish border saw jets bombing positions in the direction of Afrin, as a convoy of armed pickup trucks and buses believed to be carrying Syrian opposition fighters traveled along the border. Video from Turkey this week showed the military moving tanks to the frontier.

Roads out of the Afrin were closed and the YPG were not allowing anyone to leave the city, but morale was high, according to a resident who was reached by phone.

“So far the People’s Protection Units have not called on the people to mobilize,” said Ramzi Hamidi. Turkey, he said, “will learn a lesson they have not learned before.”

Ten civilians were wounded in the airstrikes, three seriously, according to Roj.

Turkey has prepared around 10,000 Syrian fighters to storm Afrin, according Rami Abudrrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. A rebel commander speaking to the AP by phone from north Syria said there were thousands of fighters positioned in Azaz, at the frontier with the Kurdish enclave, awaiting orders. Another commander said hundreds more were stationed in Atmeh, south of Afrin. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The Russian Defense Ministry said, meanwhile, that it was pulling back troops that had been deployed near Afrin, two days after Turkey’s military and intelligence briefs travelled to Moscow to discuss the planned operation. It said the group of observers was being relocated to another area. It was not immediately clear how many troops were affected by the move.

The YPG is the driving force behind a coalition of north Syrian forces allied with the U.S. to battle the Islamic State group. With U.S. support, including around 2,000 embedded forces, the coalition now controls close to a quarter of Syrian territory, concentrated mostly to the north and east of the Euphrates River.

Turkish leaders were infuriated by an announcement by the U.S. military six days ago that it was going to create a 30,000-strong border force with the Kurdish fighters to secure northern Syria. Days later, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced that the U.S. would maintain a military presence with the Kurds for the foreseeable future.

Tillerson spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, the U.S. State Department said. No details about the calls were immediately available, but the State Department has previously said it’s urging against escalation.

Speaking in the city of Kutahya in western Turkey, Erdogan announced an expansion to Turkish operations in Syria, promising to move on the Kurdish-controlled town of Manbij and its surrounding countryside after completing operations in Afrin. The operation would force out the Kurdish militia from all positions west of the Euphrates River.

In 2016, Turkey trained and equipped opposition forces to drive Kurdish fighters out of parts of north Syria, driving a wedge between two enclaves along the Turkish frontier. Turkish ground forces, including tanks and artillery, crossed into Syria with the fighters to establish a zone flanked by Afrin and Manbij that now serves as hub for Turkish operations inside the war-torn country.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the strikes on Afrin marked the start of a campaign to “eliminate the PYD and PKK and Daesh elements in Afrin,” referring to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and the Kurdistan Worker’s Party respectively, and using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

The PYD, PKK, and YPG all look to the Kurdish Marxist-nationalist leader Abdullah Ocalan as their guide. Ocalan is imprisoned by Turkey for waging a separatist movement in the eastern part of the country. The IS group does not have a presence in Afrin.

The air strikes were accompanied by waves of artillery strikes on the Afrin region. Syria’s Foreign Ministry promptly condemned the Turkish operation.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the operation with Tillerson by phone on Sunday after the U.S. diplomat requested a conversation, Turkish officials said. They did not provide further details.

Any ground operation would entail considerable military and political risk for Ankara. Russia was keeping military observers in Afrin and lately firmed up its ties with the YPG, while Syria’s government in Damascus said it would shoot down any Turkish jets on raids in the country. The YPG is estimated to have between 8,000 and 10,000 fighters in Afrin. Turkey could also face blowback from the Kurdish insurgency within its own borders.

A ground offensive or continued shelling would exacerbate the poor humanitarian situation in Afrin, which is now home to at least 800,000 civilians, including many who arrived fleeing the fighting in other parts of Syria.

Also on Saturday, Syrian government forces and supporting militias retook a key air base in northwest Syria lost to rebels in 2015.

Syria’s state broadcaster said Syrian troops fought their way into the strategic Abu Zuhour air base in Idlib province.

It was a coup for the government and allied militias who advanced swiftly to take the base in what was considered a stronghold for rebels and al-Qaida insurgents.

But the advance, which began in earnest in late December, has displaced more than 200,000 civilians, according to the U.N., exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation in the north of the country.

Issa reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Bassem Mroue in Aleppo, Syria contributed to this report. </s> Out of all major settlements in the region, only the town of Afrin remains under control of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the Daily Sabah newspaper reported.

Meantime, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) reported that the Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes in Syria's Afrin have resulted in 165 civilian victims over six weeks.

"According to the official statistics of the health authorities, 165 civilians were killed, including 28 women and 32 children in Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes. Moreover, 650 civilians were injured, including 93 women and 87 children," the statement said.

According to the statement, 283 SDF members were killed during the operation.

"A total of 1588 members of terrorist groups and Turkish soldiers were killed… Our forces destroyed 96 armored vehicles belonging to the Turkish invasion army and terrorist groups, including tanks and armored cars," the SDF said.

Turkish troops have lost 42 officers since the operation's beginning, according to the Turkish General Staff.

READ MORE: Turkey Announces Preliminary End Date of Olive Branch Op in Afrin

On January 20, Ankara, jointly with the opposition Free Syrian Army forces, launched Operation Olive Branch in Afrin in order to "clear" Turkey's Syrian border from the terrorist threat. Turkey considers the PYD, a Kurdish political party in northern Syria, as well as the YPG militia, to be linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey and several other countries. Damascus has condemned the operation as a violation of Syria's sovereignty.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia </s> Battle for Syria's Afrin heats up at strategic mountain

Heavy clashes erupted on Sunday between Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army fighters and the PYD/PKK terrorist group at Mt. Bursaya in Afrin, Syria.

Turkish military and Free Syrian Army forces engaged in heavy clashes with the PYD/PKK terrorist group in northern Syria, according to reporters in the region.

The battle at Mt. Bursaya, a strategic peak in northeast Afrin, intensified early Sunday as Turkish-backed forces continue to rid more territories of the terrorist group as part of Operation Olive Branch in northwestern Syria, said the reporters.

The terrorist group has used Mt. Bursaya to target civilians in the center of Turkey’s Kilis province and Syria’s Azaz district through mortar shells, artillery, and missiles.

On Saturday at least three civilians, including a child, were injured when rockets fired by PYD/PKK terrorists from Afrin struck buildings in the Turkish border provinces of Kilis and Hatay.

Eliminating terrorists from Mt. Bursaya will help Turkey reduce the terror threat at its border and protect civilians in Syria.

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on Jan. 20 to remove PYD/PKK and ISIL terrorists from Afrin, northwestern Syria.

According to the Turkish General Staff, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkey’s borders and the region as well as protect Syrians from terrorist oppression and cruelty.

The operation is being carried out under the framework of Turkey’s rights based on international law, UN Security Council resolutions, its self-defense rights under the UN charter, and respect for Syria's territorial integrity, it said.

Afrin has been a major hideout for the PYD/PKK since July 2012 when the Assad regime in Syria left the city to the terror group without a fight. </s> BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the Syrian conflict (all times local):

A Turkish official says two rockets fired from Syria hit a mosque and a home in a Turkish border town. At least 13 people were hurt.

Gov. Mehmet Tekinarslan says the rockets struck the border town of Kilis on Wednesday during evening prayers. Media reports said they were fired from the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

Tekinarslan says eight were wounded inside the mosque, two of them seriously. The second rocket hit a nearby home, where five were hurt.

Turkish TV images showed the rocket that struck the mosque had pierced through its dome. The private NTV station showed people inside the mosque frantically trying to clear the rubble.

It was the latest in a series of rocket attacks against the Turkish border since Ankara launched a military offensive into Afrin to clear it of Syrian Kurdish militiamen whom it considers to be linked with Turkey's own Kurdish insurgents.

Turkey's state-run agency says 11 people have been arrested over allegedly engaging in "terror propaganda" through social media postings about Turkey's military offensive into a Syrian Kurdish enclave.

Anadolu Agency says the group is among some 150 people detained in police operations across Turkey and accused of supporting a U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey considers to be a terrorist group.

The report says other detainees, suspected of social media posts allegedly supporting the Syrian Kurdish fighters, were still being questioned. The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders criticized the detentions as a "witch hunt against critics."

Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its own borders. Ankara last week launched a military operation codenamed Olive Branch to clear YPG fighters from the enclave of Afrin in northern Syria.

A senior U.S. official says Washington is concerned that Turkey's military offensive in the Syrian-Kurdish enclave could distract from the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and could be exploited by extremists to re-supply or create safe havens.

The official told a group of reporters on Wednesday that Syrian Kurdish fighters in the enclave of Afrin are not part of the U.S.-supported or trained Syrian Kurdish force that is allied with the United States in the fight against IS.

Commenting on Turkish threats to expand the offensive into the Syrian Kurdish town of Manbij, the official says Washington's "number one concern is the safety and security troops in the vicinity."

Addressing Turkish complaints that the United States has not kept to its promises to take back weapons supplied to the Syrian Kurdish fighters, the official said Washington intended to "fulfil the commitment" but would not provide a time frame.

The official says the U.S. continues to be supportive of Turkey's "legitimate security concerns" and recognize their concern for security along its border.

A second U.S. official denied Turkish government claims the U.S. had delivered thousands of trucks of weapons to the Syrian Kurdish forces, saying the bulk of the supplies went to U.S. forces and also included ammunition, food and humanitarian supplies.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Some 350 Kurds burned images of the presidents of Turkey and Russia as they marched on the U.S. and Russian embassies in the Cypriot capital Nicosia to protest Turkey's "invasion" of a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria.

Waving Kurdish flags and those of the Syrian Kurdish militant group YPG, protesters chanted slogans calling Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "fascist" and "terrorist," and called on Turkey to "get out of Kurdistan."

They also denouncing what they said was Russia's "betrayal" for allowing the military offensive to happen.

Protester Azad Baker told The Associated Press that Wednesday's march was aimed at urging European nations to use their influence in order to stop the killing of civilians in the Kurdish enclave.

He said Kurds are fighting alone without U.S. help.

Turkey's president says its incursion into a Kurdish-held enclave in Syria is progressing "successfully" and will continue until the last "terrorist" is eliminated.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday renewed a threat to extend the offensive east to the city of Manbij, which is under the control of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters. He said he plans to "foil games along our borders starting from Manbij," adding that "we will clean our region from this trouble completely."

Erdogan said that Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters have killed at least 268 Syrian Kurdish fighters since the operation against the Afrin enclave was launched on Jan. 20. He said Turkish troops have suffered seven or eight losses.

Ankara views the main Syrian Kurdish militia in northern Syria as a threat because of its links to Kurdish insurgents fighting in southeastern Turkey. The Syrian Kurds are the main U.S. ally against the Islamic State group in Syria, and played a key role in driving the extremists from much of the country's northeast. The U.S. has urged Turkey, a NATO ally, to exercise restraint.

Syria has dismissed recent reports of chemical attacks in the war-torn country as "lies."

The United States and 28 other countries are launching a new initiative to better identify and punish anyone who uses chemical weapons, amid new reports of a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.

The U.S. says Russia, a key ally of the government, shares blame for the use of chemical weapons in Syria because it vetoed the renewal of an expert body that determined responsibility for such attacks.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that French and U.S. allegations of new chemical attacks were part of the "systematic targeting of Syria." It blamed Western countries for blocking probes and pressuring investigators after previous chemical attacks.

In 2013, the U.S. and Russia reached an agreement to remove all chemical weapons from Syria. There have been several reported chemical attacks since then.

A top Russian diplomat has accused the United States of promoting unverified reports about chemical weapons attacks in Syria in order to cloud Russia's peace initiatives.

Russia is hosting Syria peace talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next week that some Syrian opposition figures said will run counter to U.N. peace initiatives.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that the U.S. is promoting "rigged, unverified reports" of the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria to hamper Russia's peace efforts.

Ryabkov's remarks came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Moscow "ultimately bears responsibility for the victims" of a new suspected chemical attack outside the Syrian capital Damascus.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> The Turkish attack on the Syrian border town of Afrin, controlled by Kurdish fighters, has been long in coming — Turkish officials have been threatening to launch the offensive and preparing for it for months.

However, Ankara's stated strategic goals for the operation codenamed Operation Olive Branch come with a great deal of bluster and little clarity.

Some Turkish officials have said the main aim is the creation of a 30-kilometer (20-mile) deep "secure zone" in Afrin, which Turkey says is essential for its security. Others say the operation aims to oust a militia of between 8,000 to 10,000 fighters affiliated with the People's Protection Units or YPG, a Syrian Kurdish group that has controlled territory in northern Syria and a proven top U.S. ally in fighting the Islamic State group.

Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist organization and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK, which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

On Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey's concern was to facilitate the return of 3.5 million Syrians who live in Turkey to their country. The shifting goals reflect Turkey's own evolving involvement in Syria's civil war.

Here's a look at some of the recent remarks by Turkish officials on the goals and extent of the Afrin offensive:

TURKISH PRIME MINISTER BINALI YILDRIM said the strikes on Afrin marked the start of a campaign to "eliminate the PYD and PKK and Daesh elements in Afrin," referring to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party and the Kurdistan Worker's Party respectively, and using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.

THE FACTS: The Islamic State group is not known to have any presence in Afrin. Turkey has long maintained that it is in Syria to fight both the YPG and the Islamic State group, but its priority has largely been to limit Syrian Kurdish expansion and keep the powerful Kurdish militia from linking up its territory east and west of the Euphrates River. In 2016, Turkey launched a cross-border operation with Syrian opposition forces into Jarablus. That operation cleared the Turkish border and routed much of IS from the area but it also aimed to prevent the YPG from linking the Afrin and Kobani cantons.

In the current offensive, Turkish troops and the Syrian rebels it supports have only been targeting Kurdish fighters. A senior U.S. official says Washington is concerned that Turkey's military offensive in Afrin could distract from the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and could be exploited by extremists to re-supply or create safe havens.

TURKISH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER BEKIR BOZDAG has told a group of foreign journalists in Istanbul that "700 rockets attacks have taken place on the Turkish side of the border with Syria" in the past few years and that civilians have also been targeted. Other officials have said the aim is to secure Turkey's border and guard against "terror" attacks.

THE FACTS: The YPG is not known to have claimed or actively carried out any terror attacks inside Turkey. However, the Turkish government equates the YPG with the PKK and treats them as a single organization and the PKK has indeed carried out large-scale attacks in inside Turkey. Turkey claims that the PKK takes Afrin as an operating base and from it infiltrates into Turkey.

TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN said on Wednesday that "this operation will continue until every last member of the terrorist organization who has been equipped over the past few years (by America) with 5,000 trucks and 2,000 aircraft full of weapons is neutralized. We see it as our obligation to cleanse all terrorist organizations."

THE FACTS: While the U.S. has provided training, weapons and logistical support for the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces it dominates, that aid is not known to have extended west of the Euphrates to Afrin. Afrin has been a much more problematic Kurdish-controlled area for Washington, because it is a separate entity in western Syria. Turkey had said it will not accept YPG presence west of the Euphrates.

U.S. officials speaking in Ankara on Wednesday said Syrian Kurdish fighters in Afrin are not part of the Kurdish-led SDF, which drove IS from much of northeastern Syria with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. They denied the Turkish government's claims the U.S. had delivered thousands of trucks of weapons to the Syrian Kurdish forces, saying the bulk of the supplies went to U.S. forces and also included ammunition, food and humanitarian supplies.

The American officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
With a cross-border artillery bombardment into the Afrin Canton, Turkey starts its announced military campaign to "destroy" the Syrian Kurdish YPG group.