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.
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In another development, counter-terror police in Turkey’s main city, Istanbul, launched dawn raids targeting ISIS suspects across the city, Turley’s Dogan news agency reports.
In preparation for a ground operation, Turkish fighter jets struck Islamic State targets in the Syrian border town of Jarablus.
Ankara said the latest strikes in Jarablus were meant to clear Turkey’s border of “terror organisations” and increase security.
Ankara is also concerned about the growing power of US -backed Syrian Kurdish forces, who it says are linked to Kurdish groups waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey.
On Saturday, 54 people were killed when a suicide bomber, though to be acting on the orders of Islamic State, detonated a bomb at a wedding party in Gaziantep.
NTV described it as an “intruder mission” meant to carry out “pinpoint operations” against IS to clear Jarablus of the extremists.
Syrian state media did not mention any withdrawal, saying only that the two sides had agreed to evacuate the wounded and exchange detainees.
The state-run Anadolu Agency, citing unnamed military officials, said tanks crossed into Syria but didn’t provide details.
In recent days the Turkish military has shelled positions belonging to the Kurdish YPG militia, apparently to deter them from taking Jarablus themselves.
The Turkish town of Karkamis – just across the border from Jarablus – was evacuated as a precaution following earlier IS mortar attacks. Media said an unspecified number of elite Turkish special forces were already on the ground inside Syria.
Turkish F-16 fighter jets, backed by worldwide coalition war planes, also hit targets inside Syria.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is due in Turkey later on Wednesday, the most senior U.S. official to visit since a failed July 15 coup shook confidence in the ability of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member to step up the fight against Islamic State.
Turkish artillery meanwhile destroyed 70 IS targets, television said.
It also comes on the day that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden travels to Turkey to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“It is Turkey’s legal right, it is within its authority” to take action, the minister said, adding that Wednesday’s operation was being carried out in coordination with the USA -led coalition forces.
The military began a series of intense bombings and artillery attacks on the IS-held town of Jarablus overnight on Tuesday, local news agencies reported.
The prime minister’s office had issued a warning to journalists from accessing the area, citing safety concerns and potential threats from the militants.
The move is likely to cause tensions with US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria, who are also looking to strike in the same area in their operations against IS.
Ankara was long accused of turning a blind eye to the rise of IS in Syria and even aiding its movements to-and-fro across the border, claims the government had always vehemently denied.
The assault followed Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusoglu’s pledge on Tuesday of “every kind” of support for operations against IS along a 100-kilometer (62-mile) stretch of Syrian frontier.
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But Mr Yildirim said during the weekend that Mr Assad was one of the “actors” in Syria and may be needed as part of a transition, signalling a possible change in policy from Turkey.
