Erdogan says Turkey may extend Afrin campaign along whole Syrian border

Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army members pull down Kurdish statue in the center of Afrin, Syria. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish forces will press their offensive against Kurdish YPG fighters along the length of Turkey's border with Syria and if necessary into northern Iraq, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, threatening wider conflict in Syria's civil war.

A day after Turkish troops swept into Afrin, the main town in a pocket of Kurdish-controlled territory in northwest Syria, Erdogan said Turkey would also target a region stretching nearly 400 km (250 miles) east to the northern Syrian town of Qamishli.