Operation Euphrates Shield, which was launched August 24, aims at improving security, supporting coalition forces and eliminating the terror threat along Turkey’s border through FSA fighters backed by Turkish armor, artillery and jets.
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Turkish-backed rebels patrolled the town on motorbikes on Wednesday as children played in dusty alleys.
Turkey’s incursion into Syria helped rebels take the border town of Jarablus from the Islamic State group last week, but clashes have since broken out between Turkish and Kurdish forces in the area.
Turkish clashes with SDF loyalists have alarmed the United States, which has described the Turkish action as “unacceptable” because it hindered the battle against Islamic State.
Turkish troops clashed with the USA -backed Kurdish Syrian forces around Jarablus to try to halt their advance and form a contiguous corridor on the border between Turkey and Syria.
Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, reinforced those remarks, telling reporters in Ankara that Turkey will not negotiate with the Syrian Kurdish group, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party or the PYD.
“Starting from Jarablus, the cleansing of this region is our priority”, Kalin told a news briefing. “We have already cleansed 400 square km successfully”.
On Tuesday, Colonel John Thomas, the US Central Command spokesman, said that Turkish forces and Kurdish fighters had reached a “loose agreement” to stop fighting each other in northern Syria, but Ankara rejected any such ceasefire deal.
Turkey has swept Islamic State and the Kurdish YPG militia from an area of northern Syria, but Syrian Kurdish forces have still not met a Turkish demand to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates river, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.
On Wednesday only the occasional thud of explosions in the distance was audible along the Turkish frontier.
The Kurdish YPG is part of a broader US -backed coalition in Syria, called the Syrian Democratic Forces.
“The Turkish Republic is a sovereign state, a legitimate state”.
Turkey on Wednesday vowed to keep attacking a USA -backed Syrian Kurdish militia inside Syria, saying it will never negotiate with what it considers to be a “terror organization”.
Turkey is concerned that Syrian Kurdish fighters could embolden Kurdish militants waging an insurgency on its soil. Turkey’s incursion helped the rebels take Jarablus from the Islamic State group, but clashes subsequently broke out in the area between Turkish and Kurdish forces – both US -allies.
Turkey is said to be among the main supporters of the militant groups active in Syria, with reports saying that Ankara actively trains and arms the Takfiri elements there and facilitates their safe passage into the violence-wracked state.
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Turkey and Russia suffered a roughly seven-month rupture in relations after Turkey shot down a Russian bomber in November as tensions mounted over Syria, where Moscow and Ankara back opposite sides in the civil war.
