Earlier Syria's state news agency SANA said the army was sending troops to the north to "confront the Turkish aggression", without giving further details. In their statement the Kurds said that the agreement struck with the Damascus government "paves the way to liberate the rest of the Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army such as Afrin", a majority Kurdish enclave in the northwest. On Sunday Turkish forces and their proxies pushed deeper into Syria, on the fifth day of the offensive, as Washington announced it was withdrawing its 1,000 troops from the country's north.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019