Jarabulus is located 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Turkish-Syrian border.
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“We will never allow the formation of an artificial state in the north of Syria”, Yildirim said in a speech in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, where he announced an investment programme to rebuild parts of the largely Kurdish region that have been destroyed by security operations.
The Hamza brigade, a group fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said it had taken control of Arab Ezza, a village near which Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes on Friday.
Turkey, which is battling a Kurdish insurgency at home, launched an incursion into northern Syria last month with the stated aims of clearing Islamic State from its border and preventing the Kurdish YPG militia expanding into new territory.
But the group still holds territory in Syria and Iraq.
The ultimate goal of Ankara is now believed to curb the advances of the SDF in northern Syria, which had aimed to control a territory that would connect the Kurdish cantons of Afrin and Kobani through Jarablus and Azaz along the Turkish border.
The Turkish forces engaged the fighters of the YPG, which Turkish authorities say is allied with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Turkey sent tanks and armored vehicles into the Syrian border town of Al-Rai Saturday, effectively opening up a new front in its campaign against ISIS, Turkish state media reported.
Sunday’s push follows a month after insurgents captured several military academies south of Aleppo and opened a corridor into opposition-held parts of Syria’s largest city and onetime commercial center.
Now, with Syria’s 911-kilometre border with Turkey entirely under the control of rebels and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, ISIL is cut off from the world.
Operating with support from Russian Federation and Iran, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad intends to recapture all of Aleppo from the rebel fighters. A Turkish Armed Forces statement said 33 Kurdish militants were killed and 30 wounded in the ongoing operations.
That puts Turkey in firm control of a stretch of land it sees as a bulwark against the USA -backed Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
While the government in Damascus is condemning the Turkish incursion as a violation of Syrian sovereignty, on Sunday the Turkish Prime Minister said that Syrian territorial integrity is “essential” for Turkey, as Binali Yildirim vowed to continue military operation south of the border.
Mr Erdogan was speaking to reporters after a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the G20 gathering of world leaders in China.
Turkey asked Russian Federation for a military ground support as part of the “Shield of the Euphrates” operation in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, TRT Haber reported September 6.
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The U.S. moved quickly to de-escalate tensions between the two groups it considers close allies so that Turkey could refocus its military goals on defeating Islamic State, according to officials familiar with the situation. Since the Turkish operation began August 24, the army says it has hit 383 targets with 1,599 rounds.
