Turkey denies it would stay in Afrin

Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish army on Sunday, march 18, drove the Kurdish forces out of their former stronghold of Afrin near the Turkish frontier.

But Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, the government's top spokesman, said there was no plan to remain in the city, even as officials warned the offensive could expand eastwards.

"We are not staying permanently in Afrin. We are not an occupier at all," Bozdag told reporters in televised comments in Istanbul.

Most of Afrin's 350,000 residents have fled since Turkey and the allied Syrian rebels launched an air and ground offensive on January 20 to root out the Kurdish forces, AFP reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said that after taking Afrin, Turkey's offensive would expand to key border towns controlled by the Kurdish forces right up to the Iraqi frontier.

These would include Manbij, the next main YPG-held town east of Afrin -- a particular flashpoint as there is a U.S. military presence there.

Erdogan has also threatened to then move on to Kobani -- of symbolic importance as it was the epicenter of a struggle with IS militants -- and then Qamishli which is seen as the main town of the YPG-controlled region.

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