Speaking to the private NTV television, he said that “for now, the withdrawal hasn’t fully taken place”. Turkish media reports say Turkish artillery on Tuesday launched new strikes at Islamic State targets across.
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The operation – dubbed “Euphrates Shield” – was launched at around 4am local time (1am GMT), with Turkish artillery pounding dozens of IS group targets around Jarabulus, Ankara said.
“At 4:00 this morning, operations started in the north of Syria against terror groups which constantly threaten our country” like ISIS and the Syrian Kurdish rebels, Erdogan said in a speech announcing the operation.
The offensive coincided with the arrival of United States vice president Joe Biden – the most senior American to visit Turkey since last month’s failed coup against hard-line president Tayyip Erdogan.
At the press conference, Erdogan also confirmed the Free Syrian Army (FSA), Syria’s opposition forces, has forced the militants in Jarablus of northern Syria out with the help of Turkish forces and the USA -led coalition forces.
But while Turkey and the Kurdish YPG share a common enemy in ISIS, Turkey remains determined to keep the Kurdish fighters from advancing on its border. Biden called on Turkish authorities on Wedn.
The operation in Jarablus is meant to safeguard Turkey’s own security, according to Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala, who said Ankara “cannot sit and watch”.
The sudden Turkish-backed seizure of Jarablus comes as the YPG seized the ISIS-held city of Manbij and prepared to turn its attention against Jarablus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group that monitors the civil war, said Syrian rebels who were amassed at the Turkish border crossed into Syria, preceded by Turkish tanks and mine sweepers. Turkish warplanes have been active in the skies above cities in northern Syria as part of US-led coalition air raids, but Wednesday’s incursion is the first confirmed instance of Turkish armor crossing the Syrian border.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the operation was aimed against both IS and Kurdish fighters.
The concern in Ankara is that the Kurds could create an autonomous area close to the border which might foster Kurdish separatism within Turkey itself, our correspondent says.
Taking control of Jarablus and the IS-held town of al-Bab to the south would be a significant step toward linking up border areas under Kurdish control east and west of the Euphrates River.
The movements have come at a critical juncture for Turkey in Syria’s five-and-a-half-year war, with signs growing it is on the verge of a landmark policy shift.
At least 10 more Turkish tanks on Thursday crossed the border into Syria a day after pro-Ankara Syrian opposition fighters ousted jihadists from the town of Jarabulus close to the frontier, an AFP photographer said. The military wing of the PYD is the YPG, or People’s Protection Units, which has been the most effective USA -backed opposition force in northeastern Syria. That progress worries Turkey’s government, and caused a rift between Turkish and U.S. officials over Washington’s backing for the group.
The Turkey-backed Syrian rebels captured the city of Jarablus in northern Syria on Wednesday, dislodging the Islamic State (IS) from their last stronghold on the Syrian-Turkish borders, a monitor group reported.
Another senior USA official told CNN’s Barbara Starr the United States assessment is that Turkey’s cross-border action is largely about trying to stop Kurdish action.
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Interior Minister Efkan Ala, in an interview with state media, said “we are working together with coalition and moderate opposition”.
