Turkish ground forces likely to join Afrin operation - PM

ANKARA, Jan 20 (KUNA) -- Ground Force units of Turkish army may to join the operation in Afrin region, northwest Syria tomorrow, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Saturday night.
Depending on the developments, our ground units will perform the necessary missions of the Operation Olive Branch, Turkey's AA news agency quoted him as saying.
The prime minister said the first phase of military operation was conducted by air forces and "nearly all" targets were destroyed.
"The goal of the campaign is not and may never be to bring prejudice to the territorial integrity of Syria. "The work that is being done for the last three years will remove the harassment and destruction on the territory of the Euphrates Shield in northwestern Syria and it will also eliminate the violation against civilians living on our border districts and terrorism activities. "In addition to this, the rescue of our Turkmen brothers from oppression and persecution of terrorist organizations is one of the important goals of this operation," Yildirim added.
"Since last three years, the level of persecution by the terrorist group in the region has increased to such a level that 350,000 of our Kurdish brothers came to our country to save their lives and settled here," the premier went on.
"Therefore, the black propaganda of the terrorist group claiming 'an operation is being conducted to eliminate the Kurds in Afrin' has absolutely nothing to do with the reality.
"The operation is launched to protect the Kurds and the Arabs and the innocent people from the persecution of this bloody, separatist terrorist organization," he added.
The prime minister made the comments at a joint news conference with leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahceli in Ankara. For his part, Bahceli voiced his support for the Turkish military's campaign, calling it a "well-planned" and "very important operation." "This operation has drawn attention as it was well-planned both in diplomatic and military perspective as well as in creating the public opinion," the MHP leader said.
"The name of the operation is meaningful, even its scope is meaningful," he added.
Bahceli noted the results of the operation would be "a guide and enlightenment for our nation as well as against the [Western] attempt to reshape the Middle East," according to the AA report.
Following the withdrawal of the Russian military observers from Afrin, the Turkey launched the military campaign yesterday to eliminate the terrorists belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the so-called Islamic State (IS or Daesh). (pickup previous) rs.gb