correspondent dorian jones is standing by in istanbul good evening to you dorian what kind of operation are we looking at here dorian we just saw in that tweet from rich a thai air to one the goal here is to neutralize terrorist threats but is he talking about the terrorists being the kurds or is he talking about the terrorists being the isis prisoners that are in the area. speak to touch officials they'll say it's both but let's be clear the primary objective of this operation is to drive back the syrian kurdish militia that has been on turkey's border for several years has said that this group is a terrorist organization linked to a kurdish insurgency site turkey and they say that they have been committed to removing this threat from it and it will point to the fact that it has getting support from the international community saying that they are respecting turkey's right to protect its borders now this operation is going to be a major operation this is been in the planning for months turkey plans to create a 30 kilometer deep. safe zone as president calls it and it's going to be seve

jones with the latest tonight from istanbul dorian as always thank you earlier i spoke with. he's the spokesman for the us the kurdish forces in syria and i asked him what he and his people are experiencing now. we'll there is little slow. chaos and i think there is not fear specially in the areas that have been. tried and shared by the turkish army during the last few hours we have several casualties several kid and others wounded mostly from the civilian population and. i think that created a lot of fear among the people about the gain in other areas little bit far from the border. the life continues as it was and there are a lot of people who are trying to support those in the border cities and towns and everyone is trying to work everything together in order to pass this period of time of peace. that we are facing now. tell me if you can't you know these airstrikes that are coming from turkey what are they targeting i mean what is being hit. we really don't know what what they are trying to target but mostly they are targeting civilian populated. mostly neighborhoods in t

is dorian jones on the story for us tonight it is dorian thank you well as we heard the united states said all of this in motion on sunday with president donald trump shocked announcement that u.s. troops are pulling out of northern syria and leaving the kurds to fend for themselves the move was slammed by both democrats and republicans the president kept pushing back until today the white house releasing this statement on the turkish offensive the united states does not endorse this attack and has made it clear to turkey that this operation is a bad idea turkey has committed to protecting civilians protecting religious minorities including christians and ensuring no humanitarian crisis takes place and we will hold the to this commitment. well the assurances of the trump white house don't mean much tonight to the kurds in northern syria the security umbrella provided by u.s. forces has been removed the kurds are now bracing for an assault by the turkish military i spoke tonight with keno gabriele spokesman for the syrian democratic forces that's the military arm of the kurds and i ask

jones is on the story for us a busy day of busy night dorian and so what is happening at the border now this is no longer just an operation of airstrikes is it. yeah that's right in fact to to fish defense ministry statement announced their ground operation had started said turkish forces has started to cross into syria into these towns that have been held by the syrian kurdish militia this follows hours of bombardment by took a shit tillery and supported by a turkish fighter bombers that have been pounding all along the syrian border as far as 3040 kilometers deep into this territory a sustained bombardment and this bunch of much the way it's typical turkish tactics from 2 previous operations of heavy bombardment that paved the way for the land operation which is going expected to be a far more attracted a more difficult leg of the operation given the fact that some of this fight is expected to be in heavily densely populated towns and this will raise the specter of all high and growing numbers of civilian casualties which we already appeared to have occurred already in dorian with

straight to turkey that day w correspondent dorian jones joins us from istanbul welcome dorian as a tell us more about the turkish military operation. well there has been this ongoing bombardment from the air within hours of the announcement of the operation jets have been relentlessly pounding towns across the syrian border here at least 4 possibly 5 towns have been struck took issue tillery 2 have been bombarding the area along with mortar fire there have been some reports that the syrian kurdish forces have retaliated using small fire and mortars attacking nearby turkish border towns and this is just the very beginning of what is seen the turkish forces are laying the ground for a major ground offensive possibly they can start at night in the early hours of the morning part of a very major operation that turkey has been planning for many months i what are you hearing from northern syria. well it's very difficult to get a real report from what's happening but we do understand that from statements released by the syrian kurdish forces if the scribed major panic in town centers with the

make seem to be normal in most cities around the world is something unusual for many in the it could dorian capital quito especially when it comes to the prices. for 11 days the country was completely paralyzed by protests against cuts to fuel subsidies and the resulting leap in the cost of petrol. the import of 60 percent of ecuadorian people are extremely poor so who would be affected by these feelings creases of course the people of ecuador not important business men. who are against rich left against right the protests or numerous clashes between demonstrators and security forces at least 6 people died in the violence and over 500 were injured. the international monetary fund had insisted the government council feel subsidies as part of its attempt to balance the budget that turned ecuadorians dissatisfaction with their leaders into outrage. people have not seen a single penny. but nonetheless their governments have taken out a 1000000 loans. people don't see these loans. those are annoyances. you can't see the current government with so many loans building roads hi joy electric power b

are for more now i'm joined by our correspondent dorian jones he's on the story for us tonight is stamboul in turkey good evening to you door you know moscow says that the kurdish forces have left the syrian border area with turkey but we're not hearing much from anyone else from the kurds or from turkey for example why not do we know. well a senior turkish diplomat speaking anonymously is quoted as saying well we have to take the words of the russians the kurdish militia withdrawn but we don't trust them turkey will now be looking to these joint patrols with russia to verify this withdrawal these patrols will go as far as 10 kilometers deep into syria and also in the last hours of the cease fire has been marred by reports of heavy fighting a russian patrol reportedly operating close to the turkish border in syria came under fire from fire reportedly from turkey while there has also been reports of heavy fighting between militias linked to the turkish army fighting against regime forces with reports of casualties the turkish defense ministry saying as many as 18 soldiers from the regime ha