The strikes came as Turkish-backed Syrian rebels clashed with Kurdish fighters on the ground.
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At least 35 civilians were killed, according to activists. A US-backed Syrian rebel faction, Faylaq al-Sham, tweeted a statement saying it had “liberated” the village of al-Amarna, eight kilometres south of Jarablus, from Kurdish forces. But it also is aimed at US -allied Kurdish forces that have gained control in recent months of most of the territory along the Turkey-Syria border. It leaves Washington in the tough spot of having to choose between its two of its allied forces, and is likely to divert resources from the fight against IS.
Turkish military sources said the rocket was sacked from territory held by the Kurdish YPG.
The Turkish military also said it destroyed an ammunition warehouse near Jarablus on Saturday.
Turkey, he said, also is determined to “uproot” the Syrian Kurdish group, calling it a terrorist organization. In contrast, American officials regard Kurdish fighters as far more effective in fighting ISIS.
Turkey is part of the US -led coalition fighting the militants of the Islamic State group, but the airstrikes that began Saturday marked the first time it has targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria.
U.S. aircraft did strike ISIS targets during the push on Jarablus, but the boots on the ground are Turkish.
“We will cleanse the area from ISIS and other terrorist groups”.
Turkey sees the YPG militia and its Democratic Union Party (PYD) political wing, which have links to Kurdish rebels in Turkey, as “terror groups” bent on carving out an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria. “Our operations against terrorist organisations will continue until the end”, he told a rally of thousands of supporters on Sunday.
The animosities threaten to pit two groups of US-aided forces – the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon-backed Syrian Arab and Turkmen rebels of the Free Syrian Army and the Pentagon-backed Kurdish forces – against each other.
Turkish officials have openly stated that their goal in Syria is as much about ensuring Kurdish forces do not expand the territory they already control along Turkey’s border, as it is about driving Islamic State from its strongholds.
The media office of the Turkish-backed Nour el-din el-Zinki rebel group said the Syrian rebels were backed by Turkish tanks.
The Kurdish-led forces “must pull back to the east of the Euphrates”. But in the bloody five-year-old conflict, replete with many power players and varying loyalties, it was unclear whether the latest airstrikes targeted ISIS or its other foes – Syrian Kurdish fighters. “The fighting is ongoing”, he said.
Turkish security sources said warplanes and artillery had hit YPG sites south of Jarablus and towards Manbij, a city captured by the SDF this month in a USA -backed operation. It has demanded the YPG, which makes up the bulk of the SDF and has been one of the most effective USA ally in the fight against IS, withdraw to the east bank of the Euphrates River.
At the same time, he doesn’t deny that his fighters have battled US-backed Kurdish militias, which, Turkey insists, must withdraw east of the Euphrates River.
Mohammed Khandakani, a hospital volunteer, said one of the injured told him a barrel bomb was dropped in the Bab al-Nairab neighborhood as people paid their condolences for children killed Thursday in an airstrike that left 11 children dead in the same neighborhood. He said the bombing also targeted the village of Amarneh. Two Turkish tanks hit.
The fighting killed 20 civilians in Jeb el-Kussa and 15 in Al-Amarneh, while scores more were wounded, it said. The president vowed on Sunday to combat the jihadists and the US-backed Kurdish fighters “with the same determination”.
Meanwhile, the United Nations special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, appealed to the opposition to approve plans to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern Aleppo and government-held Aleppo through a government-controlled route north of Aleppo during a 48-hour humanitarian pause. At least 54 people died in the attack. The Kurds wrested it from IS earlier this month. The group blamed Russian and Syrian joint military operations room for the use of such weapons in violation of global law.
The neighborhood, home to almost 75,000 people, has been under siege since March and has been one area that U.N agencies have reported hard to access. An aid convoy reached the area August 25.
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It also follows the evacuation of Daraya, a Damascus suburb, as part of a deal struck between the government and rebels after a bombing campaign and siege.
