The Turkey-supported operation aims to clear Islamic State group from the Syrian-Turkish frontier in an operation Ankara says is targeting both the militants and the Kurdish YPG militia, which is part of a USA -backed alliance also fighting Islamic State.
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Meanwhile at least 10 more Turkish tanks crossed the border into Syria, after Pro-Ankara Syrian rebels ousted jihadists from the town of Jarabulus in Wednesday’s lightning operation.
But Ankara’s objective went beyond fighting extremists. Turkey is also aiming to contain expansion by Syria’s Kurds, who are also backed by the United States and have used the fight against IS and the chaos of the civil war to seize almost the entire stretch of the border with Turkey in northern Syria.
Above all, Ankara seeks to avoid Kurdish forces linking up their strongholds along the border.
Battling IS militants in Syria, the USA -backed Syrian Kurds have been able to seize almost the entire stretch of the border with Turkey in northern Syria. The river crosses from Turkey into Syria at Jarablus. Turkey can not impose its own agenda, its own interests on us. The fighters came from the USA -backed Hamza brigade, as well as rebel groups fighting government forces in Aleppo, such as the Nour el-Din el Zinki brigade, the Levant Front, and Failaq al-Sham. Turkey accuses the group of links to Kurdish groups waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey. He said the aim is to create a “terror-free zone” in northern Syria to prevent militants from entering Turkey. If there are direct clashes, the US would be forced to take sides, he said, and Washington would likely side with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, whose air base is used to launch coalition airstrikes against the extremists in Syria and Iraq.
“Turkey takes actions for its safety”, the administration said.
The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the US -backed campaign against Islamic State, took near complete control of Hasaka city on Tuesday.
But a Turkish official said on Wednesday that Ankara would “continue operations until we are convinced that imminent threats against the country’s national security have been neutralised”.
Syrian Kurdish officials contacted by The Associated Press would not confirm or deny that their forces were withdrawing east.
“Our main goal is to clear Jarabulus of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group”.
Manbij, which lies west of the Euphrates, was recently recaptured from IS by an alliance led by Syrian Kurdish militias.
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Islamic State had been driven out of the town and it was now controlled by the Syrian rebels, who are largely Arab and Turkmen.
The new contingent of tanks roared across a dirt road west of the Turkish border town of Karkamis, throwing up a cloud of dust in their wake before crossing the border, an AFP photographer said.
The tanks were followed by around 10 armoured vehicles.
Turkey has backed rebels against Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout Syria’s civil war.
“If this withdrawal doesn’t happen, Turkey has every right to intervene”, Isik added.
But the minister said two Syrian rebels had been killed.
US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed on Wednesday that Syrian Kurds were pulling back in northern Syria.
“For now, the withdrawal hasn’t fully taken place”. We will not withdraw from west of the Euphrates.
“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 his Twitter feed.
Turkish army tanks and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters make their way in the Syrian border town of Jarablus as it is pictured from the Turkish town of Karkamis, in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey. Turkey’s campaign is aimed as much at containing Kurdish advances as pushing Islamic State, which has bombed Turkish cities, away from its frontiers.
Sharwan Darwish, a spokesperson for the SDF-affiliated Manbij Military Council, said there were no direct confrontations, only warning shots.
SDF officials could not immediately be reached for comment. “We may put them into service as needed”.
Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops.
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“We are very hopeful that it will be a very short time until we can roll”, Egeland told reporters.
