He also said the fight against terrorism and security would be the main topics during the G20 summit, adding that he would express to its allies Turkey’s expectations regarding terror groups such as FETO, DHKP-C, PKK, PYD, YPG, and Daesh.
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Erdoğan told a news conference early on Friday morning that the operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield” had been successful in clearing ISIS and Kurdish YPG from a 150 square mile (400 square kilometer) area.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkish Armed Forces “neutralized 57 terrorists, including 27 killed”.
The Pentagon says Kurdish forces have already moved east of the Euphrates, in compliance with Turkish and US demands.
The suicide attack is the first by IS to target Turkish-backed rebels since they entered Syria last week.
Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the goal was to drive Islamic State from a 90 km strip of land along the border with Turkey, which has been buffeted by a spate of bombings blamed on the group that have killed scores of people. As well as driving out the ultra-hardline Islamists, it also wants to prevent Kurdish forces taking territory that will let them join up cantons they control in northeast and northwest Syria.
But a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would continue to attack US -backed Kurdish militias inside Syria.
It regards the YPG as a sister organisation to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency that has left over 40,000 dead since 1984.
On Wednesday only the occasional thud of explosions in the distance was audible along the Turkish frontier.
The comments come after Turkish forces began a two-pronged operation against ISIL and Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) inside Syria on Wednesday.
“The Turkish Republic is a sovereign state, a legitimate state”.
Erdogan’s remarks appeared to be in reference to comments made by a U.S. defence official to AFP Monday that Kurdish forces had “all” moved east of the Euphrates.
Turkey’s European Union affairs minister said some Kurdish fighters were still on the western side and called that “unacceptable”.
Turkish military officials say Turkish jets have struck four buildings in parts of northern Syria held by the Islamic State group, destroying the structures and killing the “terrorists” inside.
As well as battling Islamic State in Syria, Turkey has been rounding up suspected militants at home.
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An Associated Press reporter in Moadamiyeh says security forces searched the luggage of dozens of men, women, and children before they boarded buses Friday, heading out of the suburb to shelters in a government-controlled neighborhood nearby.
