Kurdish forces have announced deal with Damascus on Syrian troop deployment near Turkey border, according to Al Jazeera.
Syrian government troops will deploy along the border with Turkey to help Kurdish fighters fend off Ankara's military offensive in northern Syria, the Kurdish-led administration in the region said.
Al Jazeera says the move, announced on Sunday, represents a major shift in alliance for Syria's Kurds and came hours after the United States said it was withdrawing its troops from the area to avoid getting caught in the middle of the fast-escalating conflict. .
The Kurdish-led administration in a statement on Facebook said it had brokered the agreement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to counter Turkey's ongoing push, which has reportedly drawn widespread condemnation.
Earlier on Sunday, Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported that Damascus was sending troops to the country's north to "confront the Turkish aggression," Al Jazeera said, noting that it did not give further details.
The European Union and Arab League condemned Turkish offensive in northern Syria while President Donald Trump’s administration is considering the possibility of imposing economic sanctions on Ankara for its incursion into northern Syria, one of the few levers the United States still has over NATO-ally Turkey, Euronews says.
Recall, Turkey launched its military offensive last Wednesday, pledging to clear the area of "terrorist" elements and create a so-called "safe zone" to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees it hosts on its soil.
Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, marked the launch of the offensive, dubbed Operation Peace Spring, with a tweet, saying that it was being conducted by Turkish and Turkish-backed Syrian militias, against Kurdish forces and ISIS.
“Our mission is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border, and to bring peace to the area,” the Turkish leader wrote.
