Meanwhile, Turkish EU minister Omer Celik said that operation Euphrates Shield will continue because Turkey would not want to see headquarters and flags of Kurdish Workers’ Party and ISIS on the borders.
Advertisement
That puts Turkey in firm control of a stretch of land it sees as a bulwark against YPG, the US -backed Syrian Kurdish militia.
Turkish-backed rebels have been closing in on Isis on two sides from Jarablus (circled in NE) and Al-Rai (circled to W), leaving only a tiny stretch still connecting Isis with the rest of the world. Turkey has long pushed for a safe zone in Syria between these two towns, with a plan to house Syrian refugees there.
A Turkish tank heads to the Syrian border Friday in Karkamis, Turkey.
Last month, Turkey’s government gave the green light to Operation Euphrates Shield after patching up relations with Moscow earlier this summer and coordinating the strategic goals of the mission with USA special operations forces who are also operating in the area.
“We are there with Euphrates Shield, we are there to protect our border, to provide for our citizens safety of life and property, and to ensure Syria’s integrity”.
While Turkey and its rebel proxies have targeted ISIL in their campaign, they have also targeted the Kurdish YPG forces – United States allies that have been the most effective fighting force on the ground against ISIL in Syria, but a group that Ankara considers to be terrorists.
Some Kurds have criticised Turkey for its role in Syria.
The PM added Turkey will not allow for the formation of an artificial state.
Obama said nothing about a crackdown after the July 15 coup attempt in which tens of thousands of people were arrested. Given all the above-mentioned circumstances, it is a bare fact that US foreign policy is based on an obvious opportunism in the Middle East manipulating all sub-state actors to exert its dominance in the region.
Syrian pro-government forces backed by airstrikes launched a wide offensive in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, capturing areas they lost last month and nearly besieging rebel-held neighborhoods, state media and opposition activists said.
But they secured only a small strip of land leading into the city – a tenuous link to fighters, arms and supplies as the government brought in reinforcements. The city has been contested since the summer of 2012.
Reports said government troops had recaptured two military academy sites in the south of the city and severed a recently-established rebel supply line.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to fully recapture divided Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war. The Observatory confirmed an explosive device went off but had no casualty figures. Sunday’s government advances resulted in a new siege of the area, said Zakaria Malahifji of the Fastaqim rebel group.
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.
Advertisement
The development leaves about 250,000 people living in rebel-controlled parts of the city cut off from the outside world once again, and will raise new fears about a humanitarian crisis in Aleppo. The strategy has hinged on a U.S. -Russian military partnership focusing firepower on “common enemies” in Syria, Obama said.
