Syrian Army to Deploy in Kurdish-Held Afrin

TEHRAN (defapress)- The Syrian government and the Kurdish fighters have reached an agreement over deployment of the Syrian Army troops in Afrin region amid advances of the Turkish army troops and Ankara-backed militants in Northern Aleppo, an Arab media outlet reported on Friday.

News ID: 68702

Date: 16 February 2018 - 15:57

The al-Mayadeen tv quoted well-informed sources as saying that the Syrian government and the People's Protection Units (YPG) agreed on the deployment of the Syrian Army troops in Afrin region which has come under attack by the Turkish army troops and their allied militants in recent weeks.

It added that the newly-concluded agreement is aimed at confronting the Turkish's operation in Afrin.

A senior Kurdish official said in late January that the Syrian army forces' deployment in Afrin was welcomed as war was ravaging between the Kurds and the Turkish army.

The Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel quoted the source as saying at the time that the Kurds welcomed the Syrian army's presence in Afrin after the Syrian government proposed some solutions and made an agreement with them.

He said that the Kurds were prepared to defend themselves, adding, "We are not enemies of the Syrian government but we want to be a part of the political process in the country; we will also deliver our weapons to the Syrian army once we reach a political solution."

Meantime, the Iran-based Arabic-language al-Alam news channel quoted Behjat Abdou, the head of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) committee in Afrin, as saying that no agreement was made to deploy the Syrian army soldiers in Afrin, adding that the Kurds were highly prepared to repel the Turkish army attacks.