Turkey launched its operation seeking to oust Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) from the Afrin region of northern Syria on January 20 and Erdogan said Thursday its forces could now enter Afrin town at "any moment".
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.
Manbij, the next main YPG-held town east of Afrin, is a particular flashpoint as it has an American military presence there.
Ayn al-Arab, better known by its Kurdish name Kobane, has huge symbolic importance as it was the epicenter of a struggle with Islamic State (IS) militants which was eventually won by the Kurds.
Qamishli is seen as the main town of the YPG-controlled region.
On Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the Turkish forces were now four kilometers (2.5 miles) from Afrin town.
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<p style="text-align:left">urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday, March 10, vowed to expand Turkey's offensive in Syria against Kurdish fighters to key border towns controlled by the group, AFP reported.
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