Around 20,000 members of opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Turkish troops will participate in a new military operation in the northwestern Syrian Afrin region, which is under control of the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), Turkish Sabah newspaper reported on Sunday.

The offensive will be launched from the towns of A’zaz, Kaljibrin and Marea eastward and from Idlib westward.

Ankara is reportedly holding consultations with Moscow on the new operation. Later on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Afrin is located in the province of Aleppo and belongs to the de facto autonomous region of Rojava, proclaimed by the Kurds in the north of Syria. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish associations to be a wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) banned in the country.

Source: Sputnik