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Turkey says civilians return to Syrian town

Erdogan said Turkey was now “much stronger, determined and more dynamic” than before the July 15 coup bid, which the authorities blame on the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.

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Last month Turkey launched an operation inside Syria, targeting both the IS and Kurdish rebels.

Turkey has been alarmed by USA support for the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People s Protection Units (YPG) militia which Ankara sees as a “terrorist” group linked to its own Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has been waging a bloody campaign against the Turkish state.

Washington says Turkish attacks on Kurdish-aligned militias damage a US-backed coalition that is fighting Islamic State.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has reportedly commented that he is “deeply concerned” by the prospect of further Turkish advances into Syria.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed to intensify efforts to convince warring parties in Syria on a cease-fire in Aleppo.

It also said Carter had assured his Turkish counterpart of continued US support for Turkey’s efforts to clear Islamic State from its borders.

“Obama wants to do some things jointly concerning Raqqa”, Erdogan said. “We will carry out the appropriate response. if these type of attacks are repeated”, the statement said. “Our soldiers should come together and discuss, then we will do what is necessary”, he said.

Ankara now wants worldwide support for an operation to take control of a rectangle of territory stretching about 40 km into Syria, creating a buffer between two Kurdish-held cantons to the east and west and against Islamic State to the south.

Jarablus had been controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL) for nearly two years until it was captured by Turkey-backed Syrian rebels in a cross-border offensive launched on August 24.

Erdogan said any Turkish role would have to be worked out separately.

Through its large-scale incursion into northern Syria, Turkey has made itself a military player in the country.

The three-kilometre (two-mile) power line will run from Turkey’s southeastern Gaziantep region across the border to Jarabulus, with most of the line on Syrian territory.

“It is not just us but other countries that must train and equip local forces, that must contribute and give direction”, Cavusoglu said.

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“We do not have the chance to take a backward step”.

Turkey has absorbed some 2.7 million Syrian refugees within its borders