Erdogan vows to press Syria offensive to key Kurdish-held towns

ISTANBUL, Mar 10 (AFP): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday vowed to expand Turkey's offensive in Syria against Kurdish militia to key border towns controlled by the group right up to the Iraqi frontier.

Turkey launched its operation seeking to oust Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from the Afrin region of northern Syria on January 20 and Erdogan said Thursday its forces could now enter Afrin town at "any moment".

But Ankara has always threatened to expand the operation to the east to oust the YPG from the swathe of territory it controls right up to Iraq.

Speaking to supporters in the city of Mersin, Erdogan said the Turkish army and allied Syrian rebels wanted to oust the YPG from all the towns they control close to the Turkish border.

"Once we have purged the terrorists (from Afrin) we will then cleanse them from Manbij, Ayn al-Arab, Tel-Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Qamishli," he said in televised comments.