Pro-Syrian government forces enter Afrin war zone, Turkey shells

Syrian state television showed a convoy of vehicles carrying pro-government fighters waving weapons and flags as they passed a checkpoint bearing the insignia of Kurdish security forces. “One Syria, one Syria!” they chanted."We came to tell our people in Afrin that we are one," said one fighter.

Afrin lies on the border between Syria and Türkiye and is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.

"Hundreds of fighters entered the Afrin area on the afternoon of February 20," Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said today.

News agencySanaSyria accused Turkish forces of shelling territory near where they entered Afrin. Syrian mediathrough the announcement that pro-Damascus forces will advance to Afrin to "join the resistance against Turkish aggression".

On the morning of February 20, the President of TürkiyeTayyip Erdogan said Russia intervened to block the deployment of pro-government forces to Afrin, where Ankara is seeking to eliminate the YPG.

On February 18, a Kurdish political official said Damascus had agreed to deploy Syrian troops to Afrin to help resist a month-long offensive by Türkiye and allied Syrian rebels.

The Syrian government and the YPG have largely avoided direct conflict with each other during the war, but they have very different visions for Syria's future.

Heavy Armor