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. Turkish officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
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“Late last week, Syrian jets from President Bashar al-Assad’s Air Force bombed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria with United States special operations forces nearby, according to a U.S. defense official, in another sign of the increasingly complex battlefield in Syria”.
The YPG and the PYD have to comply with the agreement between the USA and Turkey, which requires them to leave the west bank of the Euphrates, according to the newspaper.
The Jarablus Military Council, which is backed by the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces, said Turkish airstrikes hit several of its positions near Jarablus on Saturday.
Daraya was the last remaining rebel holdout in the region known as western Ghouta – and the closest to the capital.
A boy looks at Turkish army tanks and armored personnel carriers moving toward the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016.
Hundreds of opposition fighters and their families are reported to have arrived in rebel-held areas of the north as part of the agreement.
In response to the Turkish strike, it said: “If they do not attack our forces, then we will keep the border strip secure”.
BEIRUT (AP) – Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria say Turkish airstrikes hit bases and residential areas on Saturday near Jarablus, a town seized by Turkey-backed rebels earlier this week.
Syrian rebels and civilians have started leaving a ravaged and long-besieged suburb of Damascus as part of a deal struck with the government. Minutes later, Khandakani said another barrel bomb was dropped, injuring an ambulance driver, and hampering rescue efforts.
The soldiers met the FSA soldiers as a group of soldiers, led by the Special Forces Commander Zekai Aksakallı, went to Jarabulus to check the latest status of the region.
The Syrian government and its Russian ally are the only ones operating helicopters over Aleppo. The YPG has proven to be the most effective anti-ISIS force in northeastern Syria, but Turkey has charged that the YPG is a terrorist organization with links to the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.
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But violence raged. Suspected government helicopters dropped two barrel bombs on a wake held for children killed a few days earlier, killing at least 15, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
