Syrian state television has shown forces loyal to embattled president Bashar al-Assad enter into Kurdish-held territory in Afrin, Syria. This is according to BBC News, which reports that the paramilitary organization moving into Afrin are the "popular forces."
The move, which follows a secret negotiation between Kurdish forces and Assad, is a rebuff to the growing military presence in Turkey threatening Assad’s political vision of a unified Syria under his regime.
Turkey warned Assad against interfering in its Afrin offensive, and Russia attempted to quell fears of a direct military confrontation between Assad’s and Turkey’s forces.
Assad’s move to push forces into Afrin will likely see Syrian regime troops and loyalist militias working alongside Kursh groups like the People’s Protection Units (YPG) to oust both the Turkish military and Turkey-backed elements of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
To make matters more complicated, Turkey has a military buildup along the opposition-regime frontline between Idlib and Aleppo. It now faces a choice whether to open that frontline as a means of spreading Assad’s forces too thin to impede its Afrin offensive. Such a move would also vastly escalate the Syrian war and re-immerse northwestern Syria in violence.
