The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Turkish forces had fired around 70 shells at Kurdish villages in the Afrin region of northwestern Syria in a bombardment from Turkish territory that began around midnight and continued into Friday morning.
Rojhat Roj, a YPG spokesman in Afrin, told Reuters it marked the heaviest Turkish bombardment since the Turkish government stepped up threats to take military action against the Kurdish region.
Roj, speaking from Afrin, said the YPG would respond with utmost force to any attack on Afrin.
Turkey's operation in Syria's Kurdish-controlled Afrin region has started "de facto" with cross-border shelling, but no troops have gone into Afrin, Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said Friday.
In an interview with broadcaster AHaber, Canikli also said Turkey was developing weapons systems against anti-tank missiles used by the Syrian Kurdish YPG.
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