Turkey dismisses French criticism of Syria operation as 'baseless'

Ankara: Turkey on Thursday dismissed France's claims over civilian losses in Ankara's ongoing Syria operation, labelling them"unfortunate"and"baseless"accusations."It is being seen with regret that the French foreign minister made unfortunate and groundless comments on the Operation Olive Branch,"Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement. Turkey on January 20 began a major operation aimed at ousting fighters from the Peoples'Protection Units (YPG) from their enclave of the northwestern town of Afrin. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned on Wednesday against civilian deaths in the offensive. (AFP)