The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said on Thursday that fighters backing the Syrian government were deploying on the frontlines to help repel a Turkish assault, but that assistance would be needed from the Syrian army itself, Reuters reports.
''Groups aligned to the Syrian army came to Afrin, but not in the quantity or capacity to stop the Turkish occupation,'' YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud told Reuters. ''The Syrian army must fulfill its duty... to protect Syria’s borders.''
The YPG has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government to send troops to the Afrin region in the northwest, and pro-Damascus militias arrived there late on Tuesday.