Turkish special forces units supported by warplanes from the USA -led coalition have launched an operation in northern Syria to wipe out Islamic State elements along the Turkey-Syria border, state-run Anadolu Agency said on Wednesday.
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Turkey launched an operation Wednesday aimed at pushing Islamic State fighters from the Syrian border town of Jarablus.
Turkey’s army backed by worldwide coalition air strikes on Wednesday launched an operation involving fighter jets and elite ground troops to drive Islamic State jihadists out of a key Syrian border town.
Earlier it was reported that Turkey doesn’t exclude the beginning of ground military operations in Syria.
Without confirming the operation, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu pledged to give “all kinds of support” to push the jihadists out of Jarabulus.
The evacuation is underway in parts of Karkamis which was hit by several mortar shells on Tuesday.
In May, U.S. officials said Turkey had carried out an operation to target IS fighters who had been launching rockets into Turkey.
A senior security official told Reuters the device used was the same type as those employed in the July 2015 suicide attack in the border town of Suruc and the October 2015 suicide bombing of a rally of pro-Kurdish activists in Ankara.
With tensions flaring on the Turkey-Syria border following the bombing in the nearby city of Gaziantep that left 54 people dead, Turkish howitzers on Monday hit jihadist and Kurdish rebel targets across the frontier.
Turkish officials have also targeted Syrian Kurdish forces in the area to discourage them from attempting to seize Jarablus.
The reports and rhetoric appeared to set up a confrontation between the SDF, the most effective US proxy in Syria, and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Turkey.
It also comes on the day that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden travels to Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey initially said evidence suggested Islamic State was behind the attack but has not been able to verify this.
ISTANBUL-Turkish and American military forces launched a major offensive in northwestern Syria against Islamic State fighters early Wednesday as they try to sever the extremist group’s vital supply routes, the Turkish government announced.
The U.S. government is considering the request, the spokesman said.
It’s not clear if any Turkish or Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces have crossed the border.
Turkey is taking its involvement in the Syrian civil war to a new level. The Kurdish Hawar News Agency said government forces agreed to withdraw from Hasakeh as part of the truce.
Hasakeh, capital of the northeastern province of the same name, was already mostly controlled by Kurdish forces although the majority of its residents are Arabs.
The two sides agreed to exchange “bodies of the martyrs and captives” at 9 p.m. local time.
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Smoke billows into the sky after air strikes by a Turkish Army jet fighter on the village of Jarabulus during fighting against ISIS targets.
