Turkey launched a cross-border operation on August 24 along with Free Syrian Army units to clear IS militants from the village of Jarablus.
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The private Dogan news agency reported at least 20 tanks and five armored personnel carriers crossed at the Turkish border town of Elbeyli, across from the Syrian rebel-held town of al-Rai. 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 USA -allies.
Ahmed Othman, a commander in pro-Turkey rebel group Sultan Murad, told AFP in Beirut that his group was now “working on two fronts in al-Rai, south and east, in order to advance towards the villages recently liberated from IS west of Jarabulus”.
Ankara’s offensive has alarmed the West, with Washington saying that action aimed at the YPG, part of a US -backed coalition also fighting against Islamic State, risks undermining the broader goal of ridding Syria of the jihadist group.
The rebels last week took the frontier town of Jarablus with Turkish support.
The statement also said two villages and an airport were captured by rebels on Saturday in the al-Rai region.
The YPG are backed by the USA, which has provided it with training and equipment to fight the Islamic State group in Syria.
Turkey’s military says its right to self-defense as well as United Nations resolutions to combat the IS group justify its Syria incursions.
However, Turkey’s minister of European Union affairs, Omer Celik, on Wednesday dismissed those reports, while the spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said such a deal was “out of the question”, insisting the Kurdish Syrian militiamen will remain a target for Turkey until they move east of the Euphrates River.
In an interview with Reuters while on a visit to the United States, Numan Kurtulmus also said that Washington had a responsibility to work with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Turkey on “all different terrorist threats” – a reference to their stark differences in Syria policy. “They (the Syrian Kurdish fighters) remain a threat for us until they cross east of the Euphrates”.
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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Washington sees the Kurds as a key partner against IS, and US airstrikes have helped a Kurdish-led militia known as the Syria Democratic Forces to seize a large swath of territory from the extremists in recent months.
