A new batch of popular forces arrived in the Kurdish-run region of Afrin in northern Syria on Thursday to help Kurdish YPG militants repel a Turkish AKP government's offensive there.
Syrian media says that 500 Syrian popular forces have been deployed to Afrin, including a group sent Wednesday night. The reports say they have taken positions along the region's borders. The Syrian Kurdish YPG militant group said on Thursday that hundreds of fighters had deployed on frontlines in Afrin region to help counter a Turkish offensive.
Hundreds of people have gathered in the main square in Afrin celebrating the arrival of popular forces into the area.
'SYRIAN ARMY MUST COME HELP TO STOP TURKEY'
The YPG has called on the Syrian government to send troops to the Afrin.
"Groups aligned to the Syrian army came to Afrin, but not in the quantity or capacity to stop the Turkish occupation," YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud told Reuters. "The Syrian army must fulfil its duty... to protect Syria's borders."
In a separate area, witnesses and a war monitoring group said government forces moved into a Kurdish-held enclave in the north of the city of Aleppo on Thursday morning. The YPG denied this.
