Turkish-backed rebels cleared ISIS from Turkey’s Syrian border Sunday, securing a 55-mile corridor and marking a substantial gain in the government’s plan to drive out Sunni militants and stop the advance of Syrian Kurdish fighters. Most targeted security forces.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which maintains a network of contacts inside the country, put the toll at 47 dead.
The army said the mortar rounds appeared to be errant fire from Syria’s civil war and were not deliberately targeting Israeli-held territory. A Syrian Kurdish group named YPG is seen with equal eyes as other terror groups.
“We resisted ISIS and lost thousands of our youth, and our houses were destroyed, but we didn’t give up”.
Turkey is claiming success in its campaign to eradicate ISIS from its border regions.
On Sunday, a dozen other villages near the Turkish border were captured by the Free Syrian Army backed by Turkish military, a Turkish armed forces member told CNN. The strategy has hinged on a U.S.
Among Turkey’s strategic goals for the operation was to create a buffer zone within Syria that could protect both its citizens from terror attacks and fleeing Syrians.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to fully recapture divided Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war.
Monday’s bombings came in rapid succession during the morning rush hour, targeting the central city of Homs; a highly guarded Damascus suburb; the government stronghold of Tartus, where Russian Federation has a major naval base; and Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria.
A vehicle bomb struck a bridge on the global coastal highway leading to the government stronghold of Tartus. The bombing caused the brief closure of the Tartus-Homs highway, according to state TV.
Washington regards the YPG as effective forces on the ground in the fight against the IS.
The warplanes hit three targets in the al-Kaldi area and another in the Wuguf region, Anadolu said, citing the sources. The militant group said it sent three suicide bombers to the area, the first of them in a vehicle. In mid-August a suspected Islamic State bomber killed 54 Turks, mainly women and children, celebrating at a wedding ceremony.
“This is an important step forward in the fight against ISIL”, a US official said, using Washington’s acronym for Islamic State.
IS said a suicide vehicle bomb targeted a military checkpoint west of Damascus. The meeting went ahead with no agreement in sight, although the two sides said they would continue to talk.
The governor of Homs province said a auto bomb struck a military checkpoint in the provincial capital, killing three soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 10 others. “The (rebel-held) neighborhoods are under siege again”, said the Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, by telephone. Advances by the insurgents in recent days have brought them to within 10 km (six miles) of government-controlled Hama, the Observatory and insurgents say.
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The SANA news agency reported blasts in the coastal city of Tartus, the central city of Homs, the suburbs of the capital Damascus, and the northeastern city of Hasakeh. IS said it also carried out an attack in Qamishli, in Hasakeh province.
