Turkey on Monday intensified its offensive against Kurdish militia targets in Syria as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed there would be no stepping back in a campaign that has stoked concern among Ankara's allies and neighbours, the AFP reported.
The Turkish military announced the death of its first soldier since the launch of operation "Olive Branch" on Saturday, its second major intervention in Syria's devastating seven-year civil war, it said.
The operation, with Turkish war planes and artillery backing a major ground incursion involving Ankara-backed Syrian rebels and Turkish tanks, aims to oust the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from its Afrin enclave, AFP reported.
Civilians in the town of Afrin, 18kms from the front line, stocked up on food and medicine as they readied for a potential onslaught. Shelters were prepared and the internet was only functioning sporadically.
Turkey sees the YPG as a terror group and the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.
"We are determined. Afrin will be sorted out. We will take no step back," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Ankara.
In the meantime, Turkish news agency Anadolu reported that Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that Turkey's counter-terrorist operation in Syria’s Afrin region was motivated by legitimate security concerns.
“The launching of the Turkish military operation last Saturday was motivated by legitimate concerns related to its national security and the security of its borders, in addition to protecting Syria’s territorial integrity from the danger of secession,” Qatar’s official QNA news agency quoted ministry spokesperson Lulwah Rashid Al Khater as saying.
“Turkey, a NATO member, has always been a stabilizing factor in the region,” she said.
Al Khater added that Qatar is “fully confident of the Turkish Republic's keenness to preserve the safety of civilians and the unity of Syrian territory”.
Turkey on Saturday launched Operation Olive Branch to remove PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin.