Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that the terrorist group Daesh had been forced to flee the northern Syrian city of Jarabulus following Turkey’s military operation, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.
Advertisement
US-backed Kurdish forces have been eager to drive ISIS out and to remove the group’s access to resupply of materiel and fighters from Turkey.
Turkey is also concerned about the growing influence of Syrian Kurdish militant groups along its border, where they have captured large areas of territory since the start of the Syrian war in 2011. The Syrian government condemned the offensive.
By evening local time, media outlets reported the anti-ISIS fighters are claiming the operation was a success, but no official confirmation has been made.
Turkish army tanks are stationed near the border with Syria, in Karkamis, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.
Meanwhile with Russian Federation, the United States and now Turkey fighting there, Syria’s long running civil war grows more worldwide by the day.
The operation follows months of rocket fire and terrorist attacks against Turkey by ISIS. It comes four days after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
The Syrian rebels were backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes. “We are syncing up with the Turks”, one senior USA official told the Wall Street Journal.
The operation, which began shortly before U.S. vice-president Joe Biden arrived in Ankara on a visit meant to fix now troubled relations between the United States and Turkey, was also aimed at the Kurdish Syrian PYD (Democratic Union Party) as well as IS, according to the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The prospect of Turkish and Kurdish forces, both allies of the U.S. but sworn enemies of each other, confronting each other in Turkey presents huge military and diplomatic complications.
Cavusoglu said Syrian Kurdish forces must cross back to the east side of the Euphrates as soon as possible.
But here’s where it gets even more complex. But the Turkish government believes they are connected to groups in Turkey’s southeast that it accuses of leading a separatist insurgency and carrying out terrorists attacks. CENTCOM Commander General Joseph Votel’s and Intel Chief James Clapper’s comments on losing their best interlocutors in the Turkish army were also very unfortunate in this regard, as now we are in a situation in which bilateral relations can not afford any intended or unintended mistake, while the Turkish public is turning fervently anti-American. So Turkey informed the USA, the Russians, the Iranians, the Iraqi Kurds and other related parties that they were moving in. Earlier in the day, NTV said that a small number of Turkish special forces had crossed into Syria as part of the operation. Many analysts say the distinction is not as clear as Washington might hope. They are the predominant element in the umbrella group the USA has created and called the Syrian Democratic Forces. The spillovers from the Syrian civil war are already destroying Turkish lives with DAESH attacks, burdening the Turkish economy with refugees and solidifying a PKK state next door.
Turkey said it aims to “cleanse” its border area with Syria of ISIL’s presence. The official added that the Syrian Kurds were told they could not move north to take the city themselves.
Jarabulus is the last major town in the hands of the IS along the border with Turkey.
Advertisement
There are no U.S. boots on the ground in Jarablus, said the United States official, adding, “We’ve been in communication with the Turks about the operation”. “I think this operation is the next logical move following the successful Manbij operation”.
