Turkish troops have launched a ground invasion of a Kurdish enclave in north-west Syria, drawing Ankara into a difficult new front in the seven-year civil war and placing further strain on its troubled ties with the US.
On Sunday Turkish media reported Binali Yildirim, Turkey’s prime minister, as saying that a four-phase plan was under way to create a secure zone 30km deep into Syrian territory. “Our units crossed into Afrin at 11.05am,” he said. “The land operation has begun.”
The offensive seeks to clear the Kurdish enclave on Turkey’s border of fighters who Ankara regards as terrorists posing a threat to its own territorial integrity but risks inflaming tensions within Syria and with the west.
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