However, besides ISIS, the FSA and Turkey are clashing with the Kurdish YPG militia, which is part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
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Turkey and its rebel allies now control a 90-km stretch of land on the Syrian side of the border and are pushing south.
Two Turkish soldiers were killed and five injured on Tuesday, in a rocket attack by Islamic State group in northern Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that his country was ready to cooperate with the U.S. to liberate the city of al-Raqqa, the main stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, local media reported on Wednesday.
The Turkish fatalities came after Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels on Sunday expelled IS from the last strip of territory the militant group controlled along the Syrian-Turkish border, effectively sealing the extremists’ self-styled caliphate off from the outside world. Airstrikes by the US -led coalition have killed a number of the group’s most prominent founding members and leaders.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Daesh “has lost its link with the outside world after losing all border areas” with Turkey. It said the last two border villages that IS held were Mizab and Qadi Jarablus, which were taken Sunday afternoon.
The territorial losses at the border were the biggest blow to the militant group, which also has suffered a series of recent battlefield setbacks elsewhere in Syria and in neighboring Iraq.
In a statement, Turkey’s armed forces said the “the Jarablus-Azaz line has been connected”. Turkey, which hosts 3 million Syrian refugees, has said it wants provide a safe zone for civilians to return to Syria.
Last month, units of the opposition Free Syrian Army routed terrorists from 10 Syrian villages to the south of Jarabulus, and a total of 400 kilometers in northern Syria have been retaken since the start of the Turkish military operation.
It said he will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Defense Minister Fikri Isik and other high-level officials.
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The traffic went both ways, and operatives who participated in attacks in Turkey as well as Paris and Belgium had crossed back across the border from Islamic State territory.
