Syrian government popular forces arrived in Afrin on the day to fend off Turkey’s military offensive on the city, SANA reported.

"We maintain contact with the Syrian army, authorities in Afrin and the Kurdish self-defense units (YPG). The forces sent [to Afrin] are directed from the Syrian government, from the command of the Syrian army. Erdogan turned out to be a bad road policeman today, saying that he stopped the movement of Syrian forces that were heading to Afrin. These words are wrong, the forces are already in Afrin," YPG spokesman Reizan Hedu said.

According to Hedu, dozens of journalists came under artillery fire at the entrance to the canton of Afrin, while covering the movement of the Syrian forces' column's movement toward Afrin.

"The [Turkish] president, the government and the Turkish media made statements with a confessional implication, stating that these forces are Shiite. We in Syria are proud of our confessional and national diversity. We have been rebuffing Turkish aggression for 32 days, which in military terms has been unsuccessful. They may have advanced to a number of positions, but in general the military campaign has been unsuccessful," he added.

Meanwhile, President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin stated on Wednesday that Turkey was in talks with the Syrian government, with Russia and Iran as mediators.

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