Turkish officials have said that Turkey will soon begin to participate in coalition airstrikes against Daesh.
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The al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, one of the major rebel groups in Syria, has decided to shift its presence away from the areas covered by Turkish airstrikes in the country because, it said, their missions do not have the same objectives.
The Nusra Front, an enemy of Islamic State, said participation in the campaign was forbidden.
“The United States and Turkey, as members of the 60-plus nation coalition, are committed to the fight against Daesh in the pursuit of peace and stability in the region”, the US military said.
Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Entrance, stated Monday it’s withdrawing from areas alongside the border with Turkey the place it has been preventing IS militants. The SOHR, a UK-based group that reports on the war using sources on the ground, said at least 25 rebels and eight ISIL fighters were killed in Marea.
He emphasized that the US would not allow Turkey to attack the PYD in Syria.
Last week, a senior US official confirmed that one of the newly trained fighters had been killed and two others wounded in an attack by the Nusra Front on their base.
Ideological differences between Al-Nusra and Isil have seen the rival groups engaging in bitter clashes in northern Syria. From his perspective, Isil looked like the force most likely to defeat Assad and Turkey therefore saw no reason to back the American effort against it.
“The US Air Force deployed a small detachment – six F-16 Fighting Falcons, support equipment and about 300 personnel”, US European Command said in a statement.
The group did, however, say that it would maintain frontline positions against IS in other areas, including the Hama province and Qalamoun mountain range, located near the Lebanese border.
Militant jihadi groups and Islamist and mainstream groups have been engaged in internecine fighting for more than two years, complicating the conflict in Syria.
The insurgents launched a counteroffensive after government forces, backed by allied militant groups, last week recaptured the villages on the Sahl al-Ghab plain, which lies close to the city of Hama and is crucial to the defense of coastal mountains that are the heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect. “Al-Nusra is the strongest of the groups fighting Daesh”, said a moderate rebel commander using an Arabic acronym for IS, “Without them we may not be strong enough to withstand Daesh, without some of their (al-Nusra) allies we certainly wouldn’t be able to”.
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Few details have emerged on which armed opposition forces Ankara and Washington will partner with to enforce their IS-free zone.
