An official in Syria’s rebel-held Aleppo says at least one person has died from a suspected chlorine attack reported a day earlier.
Advertisement
His comments came after two volatile weeks around the Syrian-Turkish border.
Turkey and its rebel allies now control a 90-km stretch of land on the Syrian side of the border and are pushing south.
Ankara’s tactics have been criticized by its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the U.S. and also by Russian Federation, with which it recently remedied ties.
In a statement, Turkey’s military said the militants fired rockets at Turkish tanks during clashes near the border area from where IS was pushed out of on Sunday, immediately killing two and wounding five soldiers. Damascus denounced the intervention as a breach of its sovereignty.
“We call on Ankara to refrain from any steps which can further destabilise the situation in Syria”, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The fatalities are the first of the Turkish operation inside Syria to be blamed on IS.
The incursion began August 24, days after a suicide bomber said to be linked to Islamic State killed at least 54 people at a wedding in the border city of Gaziantep.
He said there were 292 people in the first group of registered returnees, including women, children and the elderly.
Moscow adds that the operation could “negatively affect worldwide efforts to devise a settlement platform that would ensure a more sustainable ceasefire, uninterrupted humanitarian access and would provide a solid foundation for conciliation and overcoming the crisis in this country”. “From now on, we have to demonstrate our presence in the region”, he said.
Ousting IS from the city would be a turning point in the conflict.
U.S. President Barack Obama floated the idea of joint action with Turkey to capture the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said in remarks published on Wednesday.
Erdogan said United States counterpart Barack Obama floated the idea of joint action against the militants when they met at the G20 summit in China.
Mr Erdogan gave few other details but said more discussions would follow.
Advertisement
Turkey has been alarmed by U.S. 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.
