Some 20 tanks and a number of armored vehicles rolled into the northern Syrian town of al-Rai, in what the state-run Anadolu Agency described as a “new phase” in Operation Euphrates Shield launched on August 24, in which the Islamic State (IS) was driven from the Syrian border town of Jarablus.
Advertisement
Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army rebels have cleared the area between the northern Syrian border towns of Azaz and Jarablus, the Anadolu news agency reported.
The reported major setback means key supply lines IS used to bring in foreign fighters, weapons and ammunition are thought to have been shut down.
While the United States and Europe also regard the PKK as a terrorist group, Washington sees YPG as a separate entity and an effective client in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
Turkey launched its operation in Syria, which it has named Euphrates Shield, with the dual goal of driving out Isis and stopping the advance of the Kurdish YPG militia, fearing its growing control of northern Syria as Isis’s power waned.
The Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army units have also been fighting US -backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
On the ground, Syrian state media said the army and allied forces had taken an area south of Aleppo, severing the sole route left into the eastern neighbourhoods held by the opposition. It added that all roads linking rebel-held eastern Aleppo with opposition areas outside the city “have been cut”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said earlier that IS lost its last stretch after the few remaining villages it controlled were recaptured by rebels.
Monitors said the presence of so-called Islamic State (IS) on the border had been ended.
The question of the Kurdish militias has complicated cooperation between Turkey and the United States, NATO allies and partners in their fight against ISIS in Syria.
A Turkish soldier on an armoured personnel carrier waves as it is driven from the border back to their base in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 27, 2016.
Turkey and its FSA allies engaged in a pincer move against ISIS forces over the weekend, with Turkish armor moving in from the west into the Syrian border town of al-Rai, while FSA forces pushed from the east.
The talks capped several weeks of searching for a cease-fire between the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad and moderate rebels that would expand access for hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire.
The State Department said a deal was close and could be announced by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, but hours later admitted defeat for now.
Officials from the United States and Russian Federation, which back opposite sides in Syria’s civil war, have been meeting since Kerry traveled to Moscow in July with a proposal that would halt the fighting.
Advertisement
Obama said after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Sunday that the two leaders had discussed a peaceful transition of power in Syria.
