Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested he and the U.S. are ready to drive so-called Islamic State (IS) from its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.
Advertisement
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad s regime were pushed out of Raqa, which lies on the Euphrates River, in 2013, making it the first provincial capital in Syria to fall out of government control.
Earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey can expand the scope of military operations in Syria and Iraq. In the past, the USA and Turkey have announced ambitious new joint policies concerning Syria that failed to materialise as disagreements emerged over what had been agreed to. “Obama particularly wants to do something together with us about Raqqa”.
Turkey has suggested the high-ranking soldiers of both parties could come together and discuss the issue, and “then what is necessary will be done”, he said.
“Turkey has supported us in every way until now, and has now saved our homeland”, said Fatima Mahmud, a mother who was among the group, told the Turkish newspaper Milliyet.
Ibrahim al-Hajj, a spokesman for the volunteer Syrian emergency group White Helmets, said that 22 people died and 40 others were wounded.
It said Turkey’s rebel allies had taken six more villages, located in Islamic State-held areas, adding to dozens of settlements now under the control of Turkish-backed forces.
Some 250 residents, including children, who had fled IS rule in Jarabulus for Turkey in the last months returned back to their homes Wednesday in a first wave of resettlement.
The Afrin region of northwestern Syria is controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia which holds swathes of northern Syria.
On Aug. 24 morning, the Turkish Air Force, with the support of the coalition aircraft, launched an operation to liberate the city of Jarabulus from the IS militants in northern Syria, near Aleppo.
“All victims of Afrin attack were civilians, non of them was a terrorist as Turkey tries to claim”, the official said.
“If we take a step back, terror groups like Daesh, PKK, PYD or YPG will settle there”.
Advertisement
“We welcome Turkey’s increasing efforts to fight against Daesh”, Stoltenberg told Turkish broadcaster NTV, using an Arabic acronym for ISIL, also known as ISIS.
