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Turkey says operation against Kurds' strongholds underway

ISTANBUL, Jan 19 (KUNA) -- Turkish Minister of Defense Nurettin Canikli said on Friday that the armed forces had already begun "the Afrin operation" bombarding separatists Kurds' strongholds.
In an interview with the private "Al-Khabar" television station, the minister re-affirmed that the Turkish Army would press ahead with the military operation against the Kurdish gunmen bases in northern Syria despite Washington's calls on Ankara to abstain from escalating the attacks on them.
Ankara has threatened to launch an imminent wide-scale attack against bases of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), estimated at maximum 10,000, in around Afrin, a town near Aleppo The Turks eye the group as affiliate to the outlawed Workers Party of Kurdistan (the PKK).
Minister Canikli played down warnings by the Syrian Government against launching the offensive on the Kurds and described as tactics identical warnings made by Washington.
The U.S. is reportedly planning to establish a mainly-Kurdish 30,000-strong force -- to be deployed in Syrian border regions with Iraq and Turkey. (end) ta.rk