On the ground, Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes supported Syrian rebels it is allied with as they seized control of the border town of Jarablus from ISIL, seeking to stop any Kurdish forces from moving in first.
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Turkish shelling and air strikes killed at least 40 Syrians today, a monitor said, in the first significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s intensifying campaign in northern Syria.
Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels drive the Islamic State group out of the border town of Jarablus last week in an operation that is also aimed at pushing back US -allied Kurdish forces.
Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels drive the Islamic State group out of the frontier town of Jarablus last week in a dramatic escalation of its involvement in the Syrian civil war.
Kurdish fighters said they had confronted an attack by the Turkey-backed rebels in northern Syria on Saturday, marking the first clash between the groups, following Ankara’s military intervention in northern Syria last Wednesday. They have also moved west towards the Islamic State group areas.
The fighting between them and Turkish-supported rebels and Turkish tanks and jets pits Turkey against its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies.
The primarily Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said Turkey’s military had fired on a village near Kobani on Friday night, about 20 miles east of Jarablus.
The SDF has support from the United States, which sees the group as an effective Syrian ally against Islamic State.
The PKK recently increased its attacks significantly in correlation with the Turkish operation inside Syria.
It said 20 people died in strikes on Jeb el-Kussa, and another 15 were killed in a separate bombardment near al-Amarneh.
The Syrian conflict has claimed the lives of more than 500,000, created, millions of refugees, and helped the rise of the Islamic State group, which has used Syria to recruit fighters and as a base to plan attacks overseas.
Both Turkey and Syrian rebels say the YPG, as part of the SDF, has been targeting their forces.
The media office of the Turkish-backed Nour el-din el-Zinki rebel group said the Syrian rebels were backed by Turkish tanks. The sources said the warplanes hit six Isis targets.
Still, Turkey’s notorious hostility toward all things Kurdish had numerous locals taking up arms to resist the takeover of their villages, and the Turkish-backed rebels, mostly the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham force, engaged in heavy fighting with the population before ultimately occupying both villages.
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. “The Turkish government is striking to terrorists only”.
One Turkish soldier was killed in fighting on Saturday, and Turkish officials believe Kurdish fighters launched the rockets that killed him, according to Turkish sources and the state-run Anadolu Agency.
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Turkey has suffered shock waves from the conflict raging in its southern neighbour, including frequent bomb attacks by Islamic State. The government suspects the jihadist group was behind a blast at a wedding this month that killed 54 people.
