"It’s our right to defend it; it’s invasion. It’s our right to defend our country against any kind of invasion," Assad said in a Tuesday interview to the Portuguese RTP broadcaster, when asked about the Turkish forces in Syria.
Syria's civil war between government forces and numerous insurgents, including opposition groups and terrorists, such as Islamic State (IS, also known as Daesh) and Jabhat Fatah al Sham (also known as the Nusra Front, or Jabhat al-Nusra), both outlawed in Russia, has raged for some five years and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
On August 24, the Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, began a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield aimed at freeing the Syrian northern territories from terrorists and creating security zones for accommodation of refugees. After liberating the Syrian border town of Jarabulus and the surrounding area of IS, the Turkish forces continued the offensive in the southwest direction.
