2nd LD-Writethru: Syria vows military response to possible Turkish military campaign

DAMASCUS, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Thursday warned that his country will respond militarily to possible Turkish military campaign in northern Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

Warning that Turkish military campaign will be met with "proper response," Mekdad said the Syrian air defense forces have completely recovered and are ready to destroy Turkish warplanes in Syria's airspace.

The new escalation comes as Turkey threatened to launch a military campaign in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin region in Syria's northern province of Aleppo.

"Afrin in particular as well as the northern and northeastern regions have always been and will always be Syrian territories," said Mekdad.

Any attack on Afrin will be considered as an act of aggression against the sovereignty of Syria, he stressed.

Pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV recently reported that the Turkish army is beefing up military presence amid high-security alert near the Syrian border, just as Ankara is bracing to attack a Kurdish-held region in northern Syria.

Ankara kept sending military reinforcements to the border area near the Kurdish-held Afrin region in Aleppo, according to the report released Tuesday.

It added that high-security alert was noticed on the Turkish side of the border near the Kurdish-controlled Ayn al-Arab, or Kobane, in another part of the northern countryside of Aleppo.

The military tension comes as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the military campaign against the Kurdish forces in Afrin will be supported by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, according to the report. Enditem