On August 24, Turkish forces backed by American airplanes launched an operation in the northern Syrian city of Jarablus.
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A day earlier, Turkish tanks and armored personnel carriers crossed the border into northern Syria and seized control of Jarablus, which has been under the control of the militants since July 2013.
Kerry stressed that the Syrian Kurdish forces “were in the process of retreating east of the Euphrates”, the officials said in reference to the Syrian Kurdish forces.
Turkey insists that what is happening can not be considered to be a ground operation: The task is to open a corridor for the armed forces of the moderate Syrian opposition for cleansing Jarabulus from terrorists.
The rebels said they took Jarablus and several villages on the border which had been under Islamic State control.
Vice President Joe Biden warned on Wednesday that the Syrian Kurdish forces will lose USA support unless they retreat east of the Euphrates.
He says the Turkish cross-border operation would continue until “we ensure 100 percent our border security and the life and property of our people”.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned what it said was a breach of its sovereignty and accused Ankara of launching the incursion to replace Isis with “other terrorist groups”.
When it had entered Syria, Turkey demanded that the YPG and the other Syrian Kurdish forces withdraw its forces to the east of the Euphrates River.
The operations of the Turkish Armed Forces, which has been actively fighting Daesh, have significantly contributed to the ongoing efforts of the US -backed worldwide coalition against the terror group.
On Thursday, Turkish forces were securing the area around Jarablus, Turkey’s Defence Minister Fikri Isik said. It clarifies that Turkey’s objections are against the Syrian Kurdish groups, which it sees as indistinguishable from the PKK, and not the greater Kurdish ethnic group.
“The assault also made clear the limits of US support for the Kurdish rebel forces that have been the most effective ground troops in the fight against the Islamic State”, Soufan said.
Later in the day, the Turkish military shelled a group of Syrian Kurdish fighters near Manbij, south of Jarablus, Turkish media said. It is one of the most powerful militias in Syria and regarded as the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance formed last October to fight the jihadist group.
Observers believe that the Kurds may pay the price of stronger alliances between the U.S. and Turkey, as Washington finally gave Turkey the green light to secure northern Syrian areas against the advance of the Kurds, who have made sweeping progress under USA support recently.
America is making another attempt to persuade Russian Federation to work with the United States on resolving the Syrian situation. Kurdish allies say otherwise. As an answer, Turkey has recognized that Syrian President Bashar Assad removal is not urgent and imperative.
The tensions between Turkey and the Kurds pit a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally against the most effective USA military proxy in Syria’s complex civil war. He said Turkey and the US have agreed that the Syrian Kurdish forces would pull out of the northern area around Jarablus within a week. “In moving in this way, they (Turkish forces) are also preventing the YPG moving into those areas”, the professor said. “We are waiting for it and following it”.
“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.
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“We are very hopeful that it will be a very short time until we can roll”, Egeland told reporters.
