On Thursday, a day after Turkey began its cross-border offensive, Turkish troops fired on US -backed YPG forces, which is part of the SDF. The SDF subsequently encircled the Islamic State-held town of Manbij, 30 km south of Jarabulus, and announced on 20 August that it had secured it.
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In an ostensibly anti-jihadi operation, Turkish troops, supplemented by Turkish-trained Syrian rebels, thwarted Kurdish plans for territorial expansion on Wednesday by taking over Jarablus, a Syrian town Isis had held since July 2013.
In a new message to Turkey, spokesman of the Kurdish YPG forces, Redur Xelil, said Friday that no one should make excuses to attack headquarters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) west of the Euphrates.
About 200 Turkish soldiers from mechanized units and 150 Special Forces soldiers were involved in the cross-border action and were now involved in clearing operations, Andalou reported.
Turkey has long advocated for a buffer area inside Syria protected by a no-fly zone to stop cross-border terror attacks and also to serve as a safe haven for refugees. The group said there was injuries but didn’t specify.
Turkish officials said artillery shelled Kurdish fighters for allegedly ignoring warnings to retreat from the village, where they had advanced a day earlier.
Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels capture Jarablus from the Islamic State group in an incursion that was partly aimed at containing Kurdish-led forces.
The river crosses from Turkey into Syria at Jarablus.
But President Tayyip Erdogan and senior government officials have made clear the aim of “Operation Euphrates Shield” is as much about stopping the Kurdish YPG militia seizing territory and filling the void left by Islamic State as it is about eliminating the ultra-hardline Islamist group itself.
It has ordered the YPG, which makes up the bulk of the US -backed Syria Democratic Forces and has been one of the most effective opponents of IS, to withdraw to the east bank of the Euphrates River, which crosses the border at Jarablus.
Ankara has frequently voiced its concern over the YPG’s activity along the Turkish border and has been rigid in its stance in not allowing the Democratic Union Party (PYD) militant group to found any kind of de facto Kurdish state in northern Syria.
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Syrian rebel groups Firqat al-Hamzah, Faylaq al-Sham, Harakat Nur-al-Din al-Zinki, and Sultan Murat Tümeni all confirmed they were working with the Turkish military.
