BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government condemned Turkish air strikes against the Afrin region on Saturday and said Ankara had not informed it of the military operation, state media said. KOCABEYLI, Turkey -- Turkish jets bombed the Kurdish-controlled city of Afrin in northern Syria on Saturday, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to expand Turkey's military border operations against a Kurdish group that has been the U.S.'s key Syria ally in the war on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Turkey says the YPG -- a group it considers a terrorist organization -- is an extension of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group that it is fighting inside its own borders, and it has found common cause with Syrian opposition groups who view the YPG as a counter-revolutionary force in Syria's multi-sided civil war. ISTANBUL - Turkey's army said it shelled Kurdish positions in Syria's Afrin region on Friday and Saturday, hitting shelters and hideouts used by militants from three groups, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), PYD and YPG.
With a cross-border artillery bombardment into the Afrin Canton, Turkey starts its announced military campaign to "destroy" the Syrian Kurdish YPG group.