The Turkish army said it had fired 61 times on targets in northern Syria in the previous 24 hours.
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The Turkish foreign ministry also said in a statement that Ankara’s military operation in Syria would continue until all armed threats to Turkish security were removed.
He also said that the US officials’ statements equating Turkey with the PYD extremists in the fight against ISIL were unacceptable. Turkish warplanes conducted airstrikes against “terrorist” targets in the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, the state-run Anadolu agency said, referring to I.S.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules, and did not provide further details.
At the weekend Turkish forces killed several Kurdish fighters while its tanks rolled across the border to help Syrian Arab rebels rout IS from the frontier district of Jarabulus.
Ankara fears the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria would bolster the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) across the border in southeastern Turkey.
That tone started to change when the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition dominated by the Kurdish YPG, started getting bombed by Ankara and was locked in clashes with Turkey-backed rebels.
Turkey says its unprecedented offensive aims to rid the border of both the Islamic State group and the anti-IS Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara also considers a terrorist group.
Turkey insists it will continue its offensive against Kurdish militants in Northern Syria despite the declaration of a temporary cease-fire between Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels and the USA -backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which is comprised largely of rebel militias from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD.
US President Barack Obama will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in China on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, with Syria high on the agenda, top aide Ben Rhodes announced Monday. That happened after 1918, when the allies ignored President Woodrow Wilson’s pledge to create a Kurdish homeland; it happened in 1947, when Iran crushed the short-lived Mahabad Republic; it happened in 1975, when the Shah of Iran agreed to allow Iraq’s Saddam Hussein to suppress the Kurds, despite secret American promises of support. Tehran has provided his government with military and financial backing for years and has kept up its support since the uprising there began in March 2011.
Three other soldiers were injured in anti-tank fire in an IS-held area west of Jarabulus, Turkish media reported.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Wednesday’s attack was carried out by a North African IS member. It said casualties were inflicted but did not give figures.
Turkish troops and Turkey-backed rebels have been fighting Kurdish-led forces and IS since Turkey’s incursion into Syria on August 24.
Turkish-backed rebels patrolled the town on motorbikes on Wednesday as children played in dusty alleys. “To suggest it is on a par with a terrorist organization and suggest there are talks between them, that a deal has been reached between them, this is unacceptable”.
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On Tuesday, the Kurdish-backed Jarablus Military Council said it had agreed to a cease-fire with the Turkish military in a disputed area in northern Syria after lengthy consultations with the anti-IS coalition.
