Turkish police detain 40 foreigners suspected of IS links

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference.

The remaining 15 suspects were planning to cross the Turkish border into conflict zones, the newspaper said.

Speaking during a press conference at Istanbul Atatürk Airport before leaving for NY to attend the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, Erdoğan touched upon the Syrian crisis and said that Turkey will continue to carry out its anti-terror operations in the region.

In a video circulated on the internet purportedly showing the incident, fighters in al-Rai chanted anti-U.S. slogans and threatened violence against them as a number of vehicles drove out of the area.

USA officials said that as Turkish units move on the city of Dabiq, our forces would move with them.

Seven days after the cease-fire went into effect, aid convoys have not been able to reach besieged rebel-held neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo. Rebels maintain that government troops have yet to pull back from their positions.

A small group of U.S. special forces troops entered the Syrian town of al-Rai, already occupied by Turkish troops and were quickly forced to flee from the city, amid vocal threats from the Free Syrian Army (FSA), accusing the United States of being “crusaders” and vowing to “slaughter” them.

A member of the anti-IS coalition led by the United States, Turkey has started to take an active role in the fight against the jihadist group after it had always been criticised by its Western allies for not doing enough.

Ansari said Tehran will “give all possible support” to Syria in its war against terrorism. The airstrikes took place on Sunday.

A Syrian regime military source told AFP: “The Syrian army is blocking an attack by armed groups that tried to enter the capital’s east via Jobar… leading to intense clashes and rocket fire”.

The rebel fighters backed by Turkey turned their immediate focus to pushing back Kurdish forces, which are also U.S. allies. The Turkish military last month openly crossed the Syrian border to drive away ISIS fighters in the area, however, they mainly attacking ISIS fighting Kurds along the way. The monitor added that 10 people, including one child, died when two barrel bombs hit an opposition-held town in Syria’s Deraa province.

Politically, Operation Noble Lance is an effort by the United States to shore up sagging relations between Washington and Ankara who is considered a key ally in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria.

The video emerged as USA and Turkish troops, for the first time, mounted ground-level joint operations in Syria. The rebels who objected to the American presence have since been moved to other areas of the battlefield.

Advertisement

Cunningham reported from Istanbul.