Syria threatened on Thursday to “destroy” any Turkish warplanes that fly into its territory as Ankara prepares to launch a cross-border military operation to wipe out Kurdish fighters it calls “terrorists”.
Turkish officials have repeatedly vowed to attack the Syrian-Kurd militia known as the YPG at any moment in the Afrin region in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey.
The move comes after the United States announced this week it would train the YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to be part of a 30,000-strong “border force” – a statement US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday was “misportrayed”.
Al Jazeera reported that Syria’s government warned Turkey it would shoot down Turkish fighter jets and bombers that flew into its airspace.
“We warn that the Syrian Air Force is ready to destroy Turkish air targets in the skies of Syria,” Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad was quoted as saying by the official SANA news agency.
“We warn the Turkish leaders that if they start fighting in the region of Afrin, it will be seen as an aggression by the Turkish army against the sovereignty of Syria.”
The Kurdish militia now controls nearly 25 percent of Syrian territory.
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