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Turkey turns on Islamic State while blocking Kurds in Syria

The army said the attack took place south of Al-Rai, where Turkish tanks opened a second front in their Syria operation at the weekend.

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Two fighters from the Free Syrian Army were also killed and another two injured in the attack.

Turkey launched the incursion into Syria – the so-called Euphrates Shield operation – to back Syrian rebels in their fight to push IS out of the town of Jarablus and to limit the Syrian Kurdish forces’ advance west of the Euphrates River.

The Turkish border with Syria was cleared Sunday of ISIL terrorists after the Turkish military-backed Free Syrian Army took control of all regions from Azaz to Jarabulus.

Bagci said Erdogan wants to send a message to the United States that Washington no longer needs the YPG to fight IS, as it claims.

Turkey hosts 3 million Syrian refugees and has been pressing world powers to back its plans to create a “safe zone” in northern Syria.

US officials have welcomed Turkish efforts to dislodge Islamic State from Syrian strongholds but voiced concern when Turkish troops engaged fighters aligned to the YPG, a force Washington sees as a valuable ally in battling jihadists.

Gelo Issa, a YPG political official in northern Syria, told VOA that it was uncertain whether the USA would agree to anything other than Turkish air support in a Raqqa offensive.

“I said “our soldiers should come together and discuss, then what is necessary will be done”, Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily.

“We do not think a no-fly zone would resolve the fundamental issues on the ground because there continues to be fighting on the ground”, White House national security adviser Ben Rhodes said this week.

Turkey said on September 4 that IS militants were pushed out of their last positions along the Turkish-Syrian border. Russian Federation is Assad’s most prominent ally and rejects Erdogan’s demands that he step down. “God willing, the operation will succeed and we will be able to return to our homeland”, she said.

The Turkish General Staff said five targets, including one armed vehicle and two buildings reportedly used by Daesh as military quarters, were destroyed between 2.08 p.m. and 2:33 p.m. local time (1108 – 1133GMT), Anadolu writes.

There is now a desire on both sides to improve ties and the suggestion from President Erdogan of USA acquiescence in a Turkish role in the wider battle-plan to recapture Raqqa from IS is clearly part of this.

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“We stated that would not be a problem from our perspective”.

Islamic State evacuating headquarters in Syria’s al-Bab