Up to 15,000 Syrian rebels ready to back Turkish military operation against YPG/PKK in northeast

Up to 15,000 Syrian rebels are ready to join a Turkish military operation against U.S.-backed YPG/PKK terrorists in northeast Syria, but no date has been set for the operation, a spokesman for the main Turkish-backed Syrian rebel group said on Thursday.

Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdoğan said on Wednesday that Turkey would launch the offensive in a few days, targeting a border region east of the Euphrates river which is held by the YPG terrorists.

Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist organisation and an extension of the outlawed PKK, which has been waging a terror campaign against the state in southeastern Turkey for more than three decades.

Turkey has already swept YPG terrorists from Afrin and other areas west of the Euphrates in military campaigns over the past two years, but has not gone east of the river - partly to avoid direct confrontation with U.S. forces.

The spokesman for the National Army, a Turkish-backed rebel force aimed at unifying disparate factions in northwest Syria, said on Thursday that there was no set date for the operation, which would start from both Syrian and Turkish territory.

"The battle will be launched simultaneously from several fronts," Major Youssef Hamoud told Reuters.

"It will be in Manbij and Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn," he said, referring to towns about 200 km (125 miles) apart near Syria's northern border.

Hamoud said the operation from Turkey might begin a few days before the move from within Syria.

In a speech on Wednesday, Erdoğan said that Turkey's target "is never U.S. soldiers".