DAMASCUS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish army is beefing upmilitary presence amid high-security alert near the Syrian borderTuesday evening, just as Ankara is bracing to attack a Kurdish-heldregion in northern Syria, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported.
Reinforcements of the Turkish forces kept arriving at a Turkishborder region near the Kurdish-held Afrin region in the northernprovince of Aleppo, said the report.
It added that high-security alert was noticed on the Turkishside of the border near the Kurdish-controlled Ayn al-Arab, orKobane, in another part of the northern countryside of Aleppo.
The military tension comes hours after Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan said the military campaign against the Kurdishforces in Afrin will be supported by Turkey-backed Syrian rebels,according to the report.
The Turkish president also vowed to eliminate a 30,000-strongsecurity forces which are being currently formed by the UnitedStates in Kurdish-held areas in northeastern Syria.
Erdogan branded the new U.S.-backed army as a "terrorist army,"the latest escalation of tension with Washington over the thornyKurdish issue in Syria.
Erdogan's government has for long opposed the growing influenceof the Kurds in northern Syria, fearing any separatist sentimentcould inspire Turkey's 14 million Kurds.
The Turkish leader also vowed to eliminate the Kurdish threat innorthern Syria through an anticipated military campaign inAfrin.
In his speech Tuesday, Erdogan urged NATO to take a stand onU.S.-backed Syrian border forces, which would be created from theKurdish-dominated People's Protection Units (YPG), which isregarded as a terror group by Turkey.
"I would like to call upon NATO ..., you have to take actionsagainst the ones who threaten the border security of your allies,"he said.
On Sunday, reports cited the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition assaying that the U.S. is working to form a 30,000-strong bordersecurity force, which will be under the command of the Kurdish-ledSyrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurds, Arabs, andAssyrians supported by the U.S. in northern Syria.
The force will be deployed in northeastern Syria along theborder with both Turkey and Iraq, a move that was met with vehementcondemnation from the Syrian government and its Russian ally, aswell as Turkey.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry slammed the decision on Monday,saying the U.S. bid to form an armed militia in northern Syria is"a flagrant violation of Syria's sovereignty."
The U.S. declaration "constitutes a flagrant aggression on theunity and sovereignty of Syria and a violation of the internationallaw," the ministry said, vowing Syrian government's resolve to endthe U.S. presence in the war-torn country.
Russia, Syrian government's main international ally, expressedfears that the United States is "pursuing a policy to cut Syriainto several pieces."
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday that theUnited States does not intend to preserve Syria's sovereignty,accusing Washington of seeking to create a Kurdish-controlledentity along the Turkish and Iraqi border zones. Enditem