Bashar al-Assad said Thursday his forces will counter Turkey's 'invasion' by "all legitimate means", in his first remarks since deploying troops near the border to support Ankara's Kurdish rivals.
We "will respond to it and confront it, in all its forms, anywhere in Syria, using all legitimate means at our disposal," Assad told Iraqi national security adviser Faleh al-Fayad on the ninth day of Turkey's assault against Kurdish forces.
Since Turkey's invasion of northeast Syria started on October 9, dozens of civilians have been killed and 300,000 have been displaced, according to the pro-regime Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Damascus on Sunday clinched a deal with Kurdish forces that saw regime army troops deploying in parts of the Kurdish-run northeast, including the key areas of Manbij and Kobane.
The deployment is the most significant by the army since it began a large-scale pullout from the region in 2012.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence met on Thursday to discuss Ankara's military offensive in northeast Syria, Turkey's presidency said.
Pence is expected to urge Turkey to halt its offensive against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened heavy sanctions over the operation.
Nearly 600 terrorists who were forcefully recruited in the cities of Raqqa and al-Tabqah have fled the terror group, said the sources, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media, according to Anadolu Agency.
Over 40 Kurdish militants also surrendered to Turkish Armed Forces elements, it added, AA added.
Daesh (ISIS) said Thursday it had "freed" women held by Syria's Kurds, the latest in a series of reported breakouts since Turkey launched a cross-border offensive last week.
In a statement released on the Telegram messaging application, Daesh said it had stormed a security headquarters west of its former stronghold of Raqa Wednesday, "freeing Muslim women kidnapped" by Kurdish forces.
It did not give a number or say if the women were Daesh members or wives of militants.
The prospect that thousands of the world's most fanatic militants could break out in the chaos caused by Turkey's invasion of northeastern Syria is causing widespread alarm.
European governments fear it could lead to a resurgence of the group that has wreaked havoc through attacks in the West and formerly controlled parts of Syria and Iraq.
According to the Kurds hundreds of Daesh relatives have already tried to escape since Ankara launched its offensive on October 9.
On Sunday, Kurdish authorities said nearly 800 relatives of foreign militants had escaped from a Kurdish-run displacement camp in the northern Syrian town of Ain Issa.
At least three French women who had left the camp have since joined up with Daesh, according to messages they sent to their lawyer, seen by AFP.
Five Daesh militants escaped from a prison near the northeastern city of Qamishli last week, according to Kurdish forces.
On Tuesday, a breakout attempt was foiled in the infamous Al-Hol camp, which is so overcrowded that wardens are struggling to control riot.
According to the Kurdish administration, there are around 12,000 suspected Daesh fighters in the custody of Kurdish security forces across prisons in northeastern Syria.
At least 2,500 of them are non-Iraqi foreigners of more than 50 different nationalities. Tunisia is thought to have the biggest contingent.
The detained fighters have thousands of relatives - mostly women and children - held in displacement camps.
Al-Hol alone holds 68,000 prisoners, mostly relatives of current or former Daesh members, according to the United Nations.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Wednesday they were suspending operations against Daesh.
"We have frozen all our actions against Daesh," SDF head Mazloum Abdi told Kurdish television channel Ronahi.
The SDF, which helped defeat Daesh with the support of the U.S.-led coalition, said it would only carry out defensive operations.
Agencies
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