Turkey begins military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that a ground operation against Kurdish forces in Syria has begun "de-facto" after two days of shelling, report agencies.

Turkey has threatened a full military operation to oust Kurdish fighters from Afrin region, held by them since 2012.

Turkish war planes also launched air strikes on positions of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Syria, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a televised speech.

"Our armed forces have started an air campaign in order to destroy elements" of the YPG, he said.

Units of pro-Ankara rebels known by Turkey as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) also began moving into the Afrin area of Syria which is controlled by the YPG, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

An AFP correspondent on the Turkish side of the border saw two war planes launch air strikes inside Syrian territory, sending huge white plumes of smoke up into the early evening sky.

Syria, meanwhile, has warned against any operation and said it would shoot down Turkish planes.

Mr Erdogan did not clarify if his "de facto" comment meant troops had crossed the border.

He may have been mirroring the language used earlier by Turkish Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli, who said the shelling was the "de-facto start" of a planned invasion of Afrin.

The president also threatened to strike at the city of Manbij - some 100km away from Afrin in another Kurdish area - as a next target.

Meanwhile, Russia - a key military figure in the region - says it will not interfere in any conflict in Afrin.

The Kurdish YPG (Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units) has been a key part of the battle against the group calling itself the Islamic State in Syria, and has been backed by the United States.

But speaking at a meeting of his ruling AKP party, Mr Erdogan once again linked the YPG and other Syrian Kurdish groups to the Turkish PKK, an insurgent group considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey.

"The PKK, YPG, PYD are all the same; changing names does not change the fact that they are terror organisations," Turkey's Anadolu news agency quoted him as saying.

Another report adds: Fifteen Syrian refugees - some of them children - have been found frozen to death while trying to cross the mountainous border into Lebanon.

Thirteen bodies were found on Friday and two more were discovered on Saturday after the area was hit by a fierce snowstorm.

Lebanese civil defence officials found the bodies after being told a group of refugees were in trouble near Masnaa.

Local reports say the group had been abandoned by smugglers.

Two smugglers have reportedly been arrested.

Several refugees were rescued, including a young boy who was found wandering by himself.

The group were taking the same route hundreds of thousands of Syrians have taken before them trying to flee the conflict at home.

Lebanon, with a population of four million, has taken in nearly one million Syrians since the war began in 2011.