Pro-Syrian government forces entered Syria’s north-western Afrin region to assist Kurdish militias in their battle against a Turkish assault, raising the prospect of a wider escalation of the conflict. Syria’s state television reported that popular forces, which are Shi’ite militias backed by Iran, entered Afrin province with convoys of armed fighters waving Syrian flags and brandishing weapons. “We are the Syrian Popular Forces, and we have come here to support our people, the civilians in Afrin, who have been enduring the fiercest of attacks from these Ottomans, these Seljuks, these occupiers, past and present. We came to Afrin, because we are one, we are one Syrian people,” an Unidentified Shi’ite militiaman said.
In response to their entry into Afrin with the declared aim of repelling the Turkish invasion, Turkey launched massive artillery fire toward Shi’ite militias – forcing them to retreat.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that the pro-Assad Shi’ite, acting on their own accord, as both Moscow and Tehran promised Ankara that they would not allow their proxies to intervene. “It was detected that they (pro-Damascus, Shi’ite forces) were moving towards Afrin. But when artillery fire was carried out (by Turkish military) they had to turn back. And this case is now closed for now.” / “Yesterday, in the talks with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and (Iranian President) Rouhani, we had an agreement on these matters. Unfortunately, as you know, these kinds of terror organizations sometimes take wrong steps with the decisions they take by themselves. It is not possible for us to allow this. They will pay a heavy price for this,” Erdogan said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that the situation in Syria’s Afrin could be resolved through direct dialogue between Damascus and Ankara. Speaking at a joint news conference with his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Asif, Minister Lavrov also said that the Kurdish problem should not be used in the interests aimed at keeping and deepening chaos in the region.