On the sidelines of the G20 summit in China, Turkish President Erdogan told the press it “would not be a problem” to join the United States in its campaign to eradicate Islamic State terrorists firmly established in Raqqa, their Syrian stronghold. More would be allowed to return but only gradually, he added.
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“Obama wants to do something together especially on the issue of Raqa”, he said.
However it remains unclear how prepared Turkey and its allies are to press deep inside Syria to prise from IS the town of Al-Bab further to the south or even the jihadists’ de-facto capital of Raqa.
The fall of the city would be a deathblow to the jihadi group, leaving them without a major headquarters inside Syria, which has been their heartland since they emerged in 2014.
The two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies have reached an uneasy agreement under which YPG fighters are meant to remain east of the Euphrates river, just outside Turkey’s proposed buffer zone, although Ankara has said it has yet to verify that they are doing so. “This is the first time since the operation began”.
Syrianstaking shelter in Turkey have begun to return home as some 250 Syrians passed through the Karkamış border gate yesterday in southern Gaziantep province, leaving for the northern Syrian town of Jarablus, which was liberated from DAESH terrorists on August 25 as part of Operation Euphrates Shield.
According to Turkish military sources, the FSA fighters have liberated an area that is almost 600 square kilometers (370 square miles) from PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists.
A spokesman for the Turkish army said that another five soldiers were wounded in a rocket attack on the Turkish tanks.
The Turkish military launched an incursion into northern Syria last month with the stated aims of clearing Islamic State from its last foothold at the border and preventing expansion by the Kurdish YPG militia that is seen as a threat by Ankara. “But at this stage we have to show our presence in the region, ” he said. “We do not have an option to step back at this point”, the president said.
Erdogan said that after the G20 he was optimistic of the chances of a ceasefire between opposition forces and Assad’s regime, in time for the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, which gets under way next week.
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“There was no pressure from the Turkish side”, Bakr said from Jarablus. The report could not be independently verified and it was not clear how it was determined that chlorine gas was released.
