Also U.S. Vice President Joe Biden confirmed YPG will withdraw back to the east of the Euphrates River.
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The record of Turkish involvement in the war in Syria over the last five years has been one of repeated disaster.
Expectations are running high that a deal between Moscow and Washington on a joint strategy to fight Islamist extremists in Syria that could lead to a cessation of hostilities.
The US, Turkey and other allies support them through a covert operations centre in Turkey, and they identify themselves as part of the Free Syrian Army.
A spokesman for the USA -led coalition against Islamic State said the SDF had withdrawn across the Euphrates, doing so “to prepare for the eventual liberation” of Raqqa, the radical group’s stronghold which lies further east.
Yildirim said: “Our soldiers’ mission is to ensure our border security and the life and property of our citizens”.
The sound of gunfire, audible from a hill on the Turkish side of the border overlooking Jarablus, rang out on Thursday and black smoke rose over the town.
Following heavy bombardment of Jarabulus (a total of 63 targets were fired at 224 times in the first hours) and a series of air strikes involving aircraft from the USA -led global coalition, Syrian Free Army (FSA) troops were able to enter the city and take it under control in a matter of hours.
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. Or did Turkey have another consideration, a third aim of the operation: To push the Syrian Kurds away from connecting to the Kurdish enclave of Afrin northwest of Aleppo, completing a unified enclave and moving towards yet another step to statehood?
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency, reporting from Jarablus, said the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces were working to secure the city to allow its residents to return, including defusing explosives inside the town or on roads leading to it. Estimates put the city’s population at 25,000. 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.
The interior minister said three soldiers were wounded in an exchange of fire with the assailants, who he identified as PKK rebels.
“For now, the withdrawal hasn’t fully taken place”. First, clear ISIS militants from their remaining border stronghold, and, second, roll back recent advances by Syrian Kurdish militias that Turkey considers an equal or greater threat because of their links to its own domestic Kurdish insurgents. “We are waiting for it and following it”, he told the private NTV television station. “We will not withdraw from west of the Euphrates”, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said, as cited by Rudaw.
After seizing Jarablus, the Turkish-backed rebels have advanced up to 10 km (6 miles) south of the border town, rebel sources and a group monitoring the war said. “We are now planning not to confront them, but if we have to confront them, we will”, Osman said.
The apparent efficiency of the operation also marked a major boost for the Turkish army whose reputation had been badly tarnished by the failed July 15 coup against president Redep Tayyip Erdogan staged by rogue elements in the armed forces.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador said Thursday that 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. After they are cleared, hopefully good days are ahead of us.
“The US is not going to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who the Turkish government accuses of being behind the coup attempt”, Gareth said, “and the US can not abandon the PYD not least because it doesn’t have another credible partner to work with in Syria”.
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El Deeb reported from Beirut.
