Losing access to that stretch of the border will likely make it harder for the group to preserve its self-declared caliphate and export terrorism around the world.
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The operation was carried out under the name “Shield of the Euphrates”.
“The Turkish forces and allies have taken over al-Rae town north of Aleppo, turning the town into a military zone after claiming to have expelled ISIS militants from the area”, rebel spokesman al-Zein told ARA News. However, the YPG is considered to be an effective ally by the United States, in the fight against IS.
Turkey, meanwhile, has been sending more military hardware south.
The spokesman from the rebels’ Sultan Murad Division said that the next phase of the operation would be to advance southward toward Al-Bab, the town where Turkish military officials believe Islamic State fighters may have fallen back and are holing up. In mid-August a suspected Islamic State bomber killed 54 Turks, mainly women and children, celebrating at a wedding ceremony.
Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have also fought USA -backed Kurdish forces known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, around Jarablus. “We are there to protect our borders, ensure the safety of our citizens’ lives and property, and to protect the territorial integrity of Syria, ” Yildirim said in Diyarbakir.
Turkey should put pressure on the USA 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.
The LCC said Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels captured the village of Tweiran, to the south of al-Rai, from IS on Sunday.
A wall along the border between Turkey and Syria is pictured near the southeastern town of Deliosman in Kilis province, Turkey, August 29, 2016.
It comes after the Turkish-backed forces launched an all-out offensive along the border to drive out “all terrorist organisations”, including Kurdish groups which president Erdogan and his government deem to be illegal forces.
Share your own views about the long running civil war in Syria and also why the Turkish government should not suppress the Kurdish group who are ethnic to the land.
Turkey will never allow the formation of an “artificial state” in northern Syria, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sunday, referring to the US-backed Kurdish fighters whose advance Ankara is now aiming to stop. The fighting – two potential turning points in the conflict if the gains can be sustained – complicated efforts by the United States and Russian Federation to reach a ceasefire deal for Syria, whose civil war is in its sixth year.
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Information for this article was contributed by Bassem Mroue, Zeynep Bilginsoy, Albert Aji, Neyran Elden, Kathleen Hennessey, Josh Lederman, Bradley Klapper and Jim Heintz of The Associated Press; by Nick Wadhams and Angela Greiling Keane of Bloomberg News; and by Mark Landler of The New York Times.
