The fighting pits a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally against a USA -backed proxy that is the most effective ground force battling IS in Syria.
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Turkey’s military says 25 PKK/PYD terrorists were “neutralized” in northern Syria in an air strike on Sunday, Anadolu reported.
Turkey launched the cross-border offensive on Wednesday to support the FSA in its fight against terror group DAESH.
Spokespeople representing the Kurdish authorities in Syria have claimed there are no Kurdish forces in the villages where the fighting has been raging.
They were Turkey’s first casualties since dispatching tanks and special forces units, backed by U.S. and Turkish fighter jets, into Syria on Wednesday to oust the Islamic State militant group from the border town of Jarabulus. Turkey on Wednesday sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels retake the key Islamic State-held town of Jarablus and.
Turkey has troops stationed in Bashiqa in northern Iraq, and it was not clear if his reference to Jarablus means he intends to base his troops there.
Erdogan then turned his focus to the main Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, known as the PYD.
But most fighting so far has appeared to be with rebels aligned to the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a broad grouping that includes the YPG, rather than Isis.
“We will continue until we uproot this terror organization”, Erdogan told the thousands gathered at the rally.
The FSA has gained full control of Jarablus district, part of Aleppo province in northern Syria, following “Operation Euphrates Shield” launched by the Turkish Armed Forces and an worldwide anti-ISIL coalition.
The Anadolu Agency said two Turkish tanks in the Syrian town of Jarablus came under rocket attack on Saturday from Kurdish militants. Control of Daraya is a boost to Assad’s forces and increases security to the capital, his seat of power. “Turkish sources say he was killed in an attack by [Kurdish] YPG fighters”. The rockets had been fired from an area where the YPG militia has been active.
Scores of civilians were killed on Sunday in strikes in northern Syria as part of Turkey’s “Euphrates Shield” campaign to drive fighters with the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) and rival Kurdish forces away from Turkey’s border, a monitor said.
SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said the airstrikes and shelling began overnight and continued Sunday along the front line, killing many civilians in Beir Koussa and nearby areas. One of the villages to change hands was Amarneh, where clashes had been fiercest.
The Turkish military said it took “all necessary measures” to protect the local civilian population.
A man carries an injured girl in a damaged site after double airstrikes on the rebel held Bab al-Nairab neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria, August 27, 2016. Scores were also reported wounded, so the toll may rise.
It fears Kurdish fighters gaining an unbroken strip of territory along its border, which would be a huge boost to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a banned Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in Turkey.
The operation started as an effort to push Isis out of the Syrian city of Jarabulus, but officials have been vocal about the twin aim to oust Kurdish militias the Government views as terrorists.
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The controversial president, who repelled a military-backed coup attempt last month, said Kurds were no different.
