Syria moves troops to confront Turkey

The Syrian army will deploy along the length of the border with Turkey in an agreement with the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria to help repel a Turkish offensive, the Kurdish-led administration said on Sunday.

The army deployment would support the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in countering “this aggression and liberating the areas that the Turkish army and mercenaries had entered”, it said, in reference to Turkey-backed Syrian rebels.

It would also allow for the liberation of other Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army such as Afrin, the statement said. The Turkish army and its Syrian rebel allies drove Kurdish forces from Afrin in 2018.

The agreement follows last week’s surprise move by the United States to pull a group of its forces from a section of the border, opening the path for Turkey’s incursion.

The SDF, a vital US ally in the campaign against Islamic State, has called Washington’s move “a stab in the back”.

“In order to prevent and block this (Turkish) assault agreement has been reached with the Syrian government - whose duty is protect the borders of the country and to protect Syrian sovereignty - for the Syrian army to enter and deploy along the length of the Syrian-Turkish border,” the statement said.