(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici). Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, front-centre, military commanders and ministers walk to the mausoleum of Turkey’s founder Kemal Ataturk to pay respects, in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016.
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Turkey’s and the USA -backed coalition forces on Wednesday launched an operation to clear a Syrian border town from Islamic State militants, the office of the Turkish prime minister said.
Turkish government officials could not immediately confirm the report of the cross-border incursion. While the troops were working to help open a corridor on the border, Turkey hasn’t begun a ground operation, the network said, citing military sources it didn’t name. Ankara “cannot sit and watch” he said, adding that “it is Turkey’s legal right, it is within its authority” to take action.
The operation, the most ambitious launched by Turkey in Syria conflict, is aimed at clearing jihadists from the town of Jarabulus which lies directly opposite the Turkish town of Karakamis, the prime minister’s office said.
Abdulkadir Selvi, a well-connected columnist for the Hurriyet daily, said the Turkey-backed offensive “could begin at any moment”.
Syrian activists have said that hundreds of Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters are gathered in the Turkish border area of Karkamis in preparation for an attack on Jarablus.
On Monday, Turkish artillery attacked a US -backed Syrian Kurdish militia as well as IS positions in Syria.
The Turkish government said the border a rea had been declared a “special security zone”, and asked journalists not to try access it, citing safety concerns and threats posed by the IS.
Turkey reluctantly allowed the Kurdish forces to take part in the operations in northwestern Syria-with the understanding that they would withdraw when fighting was over. The group already controls swathes of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syria war in 2011.
Islamic State controlled a long stretch of the Turkey-Syria border in early 2015, but Kurdish fighters have regained a large portion of the territory, particularly to the east of Jarablus.
The state-run Anadolu Agency reported Turkey has increased security measures at its border opposite Jarablus, deploying tanks and armored personnel carriers.
At least nine mortar shells from Jarabulus landed in Karkamis and nearby on Tuesday, forcing many residents to flee, a Reuters witness said.
Turkey had vowed on Monday to “completely cleanse” ISIS militants from its border region after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
On Monday, Turkish artillery attacked a US -backed Syrian Kurdish militia as well as IS positions in Syria.
Turkish media are saying that Turkey’s artillery has shelled Islamic State targets across the border in Syria. The U.S. says it has embedded some 300 special forces with the SDF.
The latest developments have thrust the town into the spotlight of the ongoing Syrian civil war.
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Syrian state media reported that a cease-fire between government and Kurdish forces in Hasakeh went into effect Tuesday. Government and Kurdish forces have shared control of Hasakeh since the early years of the Syrian war.
