Street Fight Looms as Turkey Moves to Storm Kurd Stronghold
- Erdogan official says locals should run Afrin, not Assad
- Offensive against Kurds may move east and into Iraqi territory
Turkish forces advance towards the village of Al-Maabatli in the Afrin region on March 2.
Photographer: Bakr Alkasem/AFP/Getty Images
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Turkey is preparing for a street-by-street fight to capture the most important Kurdish-held town in northern Syria, and if victorious, won’t transfer control to the Syrian government, according to a senior official.
“We have no intention to hand Afrin over to the regime,” Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told state-run TRT television on Thursday. The entire Afrin enclave, now largely under Turkish forces, should be run by its local population, he said.