UPDATE - Turkey: Top civil-military leadership meet in capital

UPDATES WITH THE END OF NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING, ADDS START OF CABINET MEETING

By Ilkay Guder and Enes Kaplan

ANKARA (AA) - The National Security council meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was held Wednesday at the presidential complex in Ankara.

The first meeting of the year began at 03.20 pm local time (1220 GMT), according to a presidential source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Internal and external developments, extension of the state of emergency and a possible military operation in Afrin is expected to be discussed at the meeting, the source added.

The meeting lasted for around 4 hours and 20 minutes.

Turkey’s National Security Council advises government on extending country’s state of emergency.

A Cabinet meeting, also chaired by Erdogan, began at 8.30 p.m. (0530GMT) following the meeting of the security council.

On Saturday, Turkish security forces hit several PYD/PKK targets in Afrin, along Turkey’s border with northern Syria, to prevent a "terror corridor" from forming along the border.

An Afrin operation is expected to follow Turkey's successful seven-month Operation Euphrates Shield, which ended in March 2017.

On Sunday the U.S.-led coalition in Syria controversially announced it was working with the SDF -- a group dominated by the terrorist PYD/PKK -- to set up and train a Syrian border protection force.

Turkey has long protested U.S. support for the PYD/PKK, the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, and its military wing the YPG, while Washington has called it a "reliable ally" in its fight against Daesh in Syria.

Listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and the EU, the PKK has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, killing nearly 40,000 people.