On Thursday, Turkish forces were securing the area around Jarablus, Turkey’s Defence Minister Fikri Isik said.
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Erdogan is also afraid that the Kurdish rebels will inspire the Kurds living in Turkey to rise up and gain autonomy in the region.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of mostly Kurdish rebel groups supported by the US-led coalition, have been battling to drive Isis militants out of the region for months under the cover of worldwide air strike.
The offensive coincided with a crucial visit to Ankara by Biden and seemed timed to demonstrate that Turkey and the United States remain close allies in the war against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, despite the tensions that have erupted in their relationship since last month’s coup attempt in Turkey.
Syrian rebels on Thursday said they seized the border town of Jarablus from Daesh control shortly after Turkey launched a cross-border offensive.
“The Syrian Democratic Forces have moved east across the Euphrates to prepare for the eventual liberation of Raqqa”, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve wrote on Twitter. The predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces created the council to lead the battle for Manbij, giving it an Arab and local membership to assuage Ankara’s concerns.
“Islamic State should be completely cleansed, this is an absolute must”.
Nevertheless, the Turkish authorities claim that they don’t plan on violating Russian interests in Syria.
Saleh Muslim, head of the Kurdish umbrella group in Syria, warned Wednesday that Turkey was entering a “quagmire” in Syria and faced defeat there like Islamic State.
But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also said Kurdish-backed forces opposed by Ankara had gained up to 8 km of ground northwards, apparently seeking to pre-empt advances by the rebels. Turkey is a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, and therefore an important ally in the region for the US, especially as a bulwark against ISIS.
He recalled that the recent successes of the Kurdish forces in the war against Islamic State resulted in a possibility emerging of combining the Kurdish cantons on the border of Syria and Turkey into a single territory – something that is unacceptable for Erdogan.
“We are in a very serious situation. evidences of crimes have been provided”, he said in a speech in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, near Paris. It could help solve a problem the USA created by aligning itself so closely, and enabling so successfully, the Syrian Democratic Forces. The Kurds have been driving westward over the past year and a half, and earlier this month captured the town of Manbij, a key IS supply hub west of the Euphrates River.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that in Biden’s talks in Ankara, the two sides reached agreement that that the Syrian Kurdish forces “should never spread west of the Euphrates and not enter any kind of activity there”.
“It seems that they might have to ditch the Syrian Kurds in favor of Turkey and they want to continue the cooperation with Turkey”, the analyst said, noting that the “Kurds are redline for Turkey”.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador says there doesn’t have to be a confrontation with the United States over a report that blames the Syrian government and Islamic State militants for carrying out chemical attacks in the conflict-torn country.
Above all, Ankara seeks to avoid Kurdish forces linking up their strongholds along the border.
The incursion comes at a testing time for Turkish-U.S. relations.
On Thursday, at least 10 more Turkish tanks were seen crossing into Syria at the Turkish border town of Karkamis, the private Dogan news agency reported.
The main Syrian Kurdish faction says its troops have “returned to their bases” after helping liberate the city of Manbij from the Islamic State group.
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Turkey also fears the rise of an autonomous Kurdish zone along its border, and has demanded the PYD to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates. Turkish troops and Kurdish guerrillas have already fought a decades-long war over Kurdish demands for autonomy in Turkey.
