Turkish authorities are also building a wall to boost security along a stretch of its border with Syria, Anadolu reported.
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From Turkey, foreign fighters and supporters flocked to the group, bringing arms, ammunition and other supplies. Since then, government forces and their allies have been trying to recapture the area. Airstrikes by the USA -led coalition have killed a number of the group’s most prominent founding members and leaders.
Jarablus, which had been held by Islamic State, was the first town captured by Turkey’s army and its Syrian rebel allies in an offensive launched on August 24 that aims to sweep away jihadists and Syrian Kurdish militias from the frontier.
The Syrian government has also strongly denounced Turkey’s incursion as a violation of its sovereignty.
Top diplomats from the United States and Russian Federation yesterday failed to reach a deal to provide aid to ravaged civilians in Aleppo, and at least partially halt bombardments from Syria and Russian Federation, which began an aerial campaign in support of the Syrian government last September.
The Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army units have also been fighting US -backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The conquest came as US President Barack Obama pledged support for Turkey’s stepped-up role in the fight against the militants after meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Group of 20 summit in China.
“We will never allow the formation of an artificial state in the north of Syria”, Yildirim said.
Turkey is fighting a three-decade-old Kurdish insurgency in the southeast and fears that the YPG’s advances will embolden militants at home.
The incursion took place about 55km (34 miles) south-west of Jarablus, where Turkey last week launched its first major incursion into Syria since the conflict started.
This is a key part of Turkey’s plan to stop the advance of Syrian Kurdish fighters, who are backed by the United States. One Turkish soldier was killed when Kurdish units attacked Turkish tanks, while villagers in the area say Turkish airstrikes killed dozens of civilians.
Turkey’s state-run news agency says Turkish tanks have entered Syria’s Cobanbey district northeast of Aleppo in a “new phase” of the Euphrates Shield operation.
According to reports, government forces had captured two military academy sites and cut off a supply line that the rebels had recently established.
Turkey should put pressure on the United States in order to achieve the withdrawal of Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG) from strategically important city of Manbij in Syria on the west bank of the Euphrates River, says a Turkish expert.
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State media said the army and allied forces had taken an area south of Aleppo, severing the sole route left into the eastern neighbourhoods held by the opposition. “But this area is still very thin and vulnerable to attacks from the other side”, said a senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as to discuss the strategy more freely.
