Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes crossed the border into Syria last week to join Syrian rebels as part of a drive to remove Islamic State militants from Jarablus.
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Turkey sees the Kurdish YPG in Syria as an extension of the local Kurdish guerrilla group the PKK, which has been leading an insurgency in Turkey since late 1970s in demand of Kurdish rights and increased local authority in Kurdish regions.
A Turkish army tank stationed overlooks the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016. They have also moved west towards the Islamic State group areas.
The source said fighters from the PYD carried out the attack.
“For now, our focus is on ISIS”, said Issa, the commander of the Sultan Murad brigade.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said SDF militias had advanced to the same area few days ago.
The SOHR said the bombardment targeted an area south of the former ISIL stronghold of Jarablus, which Turkish-led forces captured on the first day of the incursion.
Ankara announced on Wednesday that Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, had begun a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to clear the Syrian border town of Jarabulus of militants from the Daesh jihadist group, outlawed in Russian Federation and many other countries.
The dead soldier – who has not been identified – is the first confirmed Turkish fatality of Turkey’s unprecedented operation in northern Syria which began on Wednesday and has so far proceeded with lightning pace.
Four rockets were fired at a police checkpoint, though no casualties were reported.
The declaration comes a day after the evacuation of almost 5,000 residents and fighters from the suburb began.
Daraya was the last remaining rebel holdout in the region known as western Ghouta – and the closest to the capital.
Some 700 gunmen and 4,000 civilians were evacuated.
Some 280 rebels, their families and wounded arrived Saturday morning in a village in the northern rebel-held Idlib province. Meanwhile a bloody battle for the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest, is ongoing. But both Ankara and Damascus share concerns over Kurdish ambitions for autonomy.
Fighting over the weekend continued in other parts of Syria. Aircraft from the anti-Daesh coalition also backed the operation.
The strikes came as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey clashed with fighters opposed by Ankara at the village of al-Amarna, some 10 km south of the border town of Jarablus that was seized by the Turkey-backed rebels from IS this week. It said the target was an ammunition depot and a command center for “terror groups” but didn’t name the area or the group.
He did not identify the forces being sent to Manbij and Jarablus, but he said military councils in both cities are made up of local fighters and some Free Syrian Army rebel groups which are allied to the US -backed anti-Islamic State alliance the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Washington backs the SDF and YPG, seeing them as the most reliable and effective ally in the fight against Isis in Syria.
The operation started as an effort to push the so-called Islamic State 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. The government denies it uses barrel bombs.
Turkey launched airstrikes that injured civilians in Al Amarneh in eastern Jarablus, according to Manbij Military Council Cmdr.
Turkey is a leading backer of the rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad. Turkey, which is wrestling with Kurdish insurgents within its border – blamed the attack on Kurdish forces.
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The militias have said there are no Kurdish forces in the area.
