According to the Municipality of Şahinbey, a border district in Gaziantep province, the humanitarian aid was to be delivered to the civilians living in Jarablus, the Free Syrian Army (FSA)-liberated town.
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“Turkey itself wanted to enter Syrian territory to fight Daesh and we can understand this attitude concerning the terrorist crimes committed by Daesh in Turkey”, said Hollande, likely referring to last weekend’s bomb attack on a wedding that killed 54 people and has been blamed on Daesh, as well as other attacks in recent months.
Osman, 49, said both Turkey and the USA -led coalition against Islamic State, of which Ankara is a part, were keen to provide air support for the operation.
Ankara is targeting Islamic State, as well as calling for the withdrawal of a Syrian Kurdish militia it claims is linked to the PKK.
Political columnist Semih Idiz, of Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News and Al Monitor website, said that even though the military has been sidelined following the failed coup, Turkish security forces remain capable.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition against Islamic State also said the SDF had withdrawn across the Euphrates, but had done so “to prepare for the eventual liberation” of Raqqa, the radical group´s stronghold in northern Syria.
“In the Euphrates Shield operation, Turkey is supporting the moderate Syrian opposition with its tanks, artillery and aircraft”, said Alexander Vasilyev, a senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.
“We have been very clear on our support, they [Kurds] have been tremendous fighters against our common enemy, which is Daesh, and it’s a complex issue; it’s a fast-moving issue”, US State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau told RT’s Gayane Chichakyan, responding to a question about whether Washington was turning away from the Kurds by siding with Turkey in Syria.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said fighters from the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance dominated by the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) militia, had moved north from positions near Manbij, which they recently captured from IS.
“A number of [the] staunchest opponents of military action ended up partaking in the coup attempt”, he added.
Syrian Kurdish officials contacted by The Associated Press would not confirm or deny that their forces were withdrawing east.
To better secure the border, Turkey sent at least 10 more tanks into northern Syria on Thursday, Turkey’s private Dogan news agency reported.
“We need construction machinery to open up roads.and we may need more in the days ahead”.
Turkey sent more tanks into Syria on August 25, one day after launching an operation against ISIL in the Syrian town of Jarablus.
Meanwhile, U.N. officials said they had received word from Russian Federation that it supports a 48-hour pause in fighting in and around Syria’s largest city so that humanitarian aid can be delivered to its increasingly embattled population. The call came despite Kurdish forces’ effectiveness in fighting ISIS on the western side of the river.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish-backed Shahba Council said that after the Turkish intervention in northern Syria, the town of Jarabulus will become a ‘grave for the criminal occupier Erdogan and his mercenaries’.
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Saleh Muslim, head of the Kurdish PYD, said on Wednesday that Turkey was entering a “quagmire” in Syria and faced defeat there like Islamic State. YPG spokesman Redur Khalil said in a statement Friday that his forces have pulled back from west of the river. Turkish leaders have always been concerned over the rapid advance of Kurdish forces fighting ISIS along its southern border, allowing the YPG to take Jarablus would be unacceptable from Turkey’s perspective.
