DAMASCUS, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Pro-government Syrian forces will enter the Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave in northern Syria to help in defending that region from the one-month long Turkish military campaign, state news agency SANA reported Monday.
The "popular forces," a term used to describe pro-government forces, will enter Afrin within the next hours "to support the steadfastness of its people," said the report.
The declaration is the first official comment on the recent hustle and bustle about an agreement reached between the Syrian army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) about the entry of the Syrian army to Afrin.
Still, the details of the deal haven't been made clear yet, as with SANA's declaration, pro-government forces will enter Afrin, not the official Syrian army.
The YPG has been controlling Afrin for nearly six years, but tension with Turkey over the growing influence of the Kurds has pushed Ankara to launch a wide-scale offensive along with Turkey-backed Syrian insurgents against Afrin.
The Kurds in Afrin have called on the government to intervene to protect Afrin as it's a Syrian territory after all.
A day earlier, Kurdish news outlets said the YPG agreed with the Syrian army for the entry of the gov't forces to border areas between Afrin and Turkey, not to the city center.
Syria's Kurds, who make up 10 percent of the country's population, have been calling and working to establish an autonomous region in northern Syria.
