Turkey 'will fight Assad regime' if troops enter Afrin

Turkey will battle Syrian regime troops if they enter the region of Afrin to protect Syrian Kurdish fighters, the Turkish foreign minister said on Monday.

Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke on Monday in Jordan's capital Amman as Syrian state media reported that pro-Syrian regime forces will begin entering the Afrin enclave "within hours" after reaching an agreement with the Kurdish militia in control of the region.

The official Syrian news agency SANA earlier said the forces will deploy in Afrin to "bolster" local forces in confronting Turkish "aggression."

SANA gave no further details about the deployment of the troops, known as "popular forces," to the area. The Syrian regime withdrew from much of the border area with Turkey in 2012 and maintains no presence in Afrin.

The Turkish minister said that "if the regime is entering to protect the YPG, then no one can stop us, stop Turkey or the Turkish soldiers."

The comments came after Kurdish officials said they had struck a deal under which regime forces would help repel an ongoing Turkish offensive on the enclave.

The move could be a first step toward restoring Syrian regime presence along the border with Turkey, which has been an active supporter of President Bashar Assad's opponents and sponsored rebels fighting to oust him throughout the seven-year Syrian civil war.

However, Turkey in recent years has focused more on limiting expanding Kurdish influence along its borders.

Turkey's private Haberturk newspaper said the Syrian regime forces were expected to deploy at 52 locations within the week and to four locations in the next two days.

The paper claimed that under the deal, the YPG had agreed to hand over heavy weapons it holds. The paper did not provide a source for the report.

Turkey last month launched military operation dubbed "Olive Branch" supporting Syrian rebels with ground troops and airstrikes against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, viewed as "terrorists" by Ankara.