“Mr President (Erdogan) told Obama that as Turkey we look favourably carrying out such a joint operation”, he said.
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“Raqqa is an important center for Daesh”, Erdoğan said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.
He told reporters: “Obama wants to do some things together concerning Raqqa in particular”.
More than 250 Syrians, including women and children, arrived at a sports complex in the Turkish border town of Karkamis for registration early on Wednesday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency said.
“It is not just us but other countries that must train and equip local forces, that must contribute and give direction”, Cavusoglu said. The operation is also meant to deter further advances by Syrian Kurds allied with Turkish separatists.
IS rapidly infiltrated the city, which is strategically located near the Turkish border, and declared a caliphate in 2014.
Ousting IS from the city would be a turning point in the conflict.
On August 24, Turkish special forces, tanks and jets backed by planes from the US-led coalition launched their first coordinated offensive in Syria.
Turkey is building an underground power line to supply the town of Jarabulus in Syria with electricity two weeks after Turkish forces helped pro-Ankara rebels to recapture the town from jihadists, an official said on Thursday.
While Washington says Turkish attacks on Kurdish-aligned militias damaged a coalition fighting the IS, Russia said Ankara’s southwards push could complicate worldwide efforts to reach a peace deal.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were intense clashes Tuesday between the Turkish-backed rebels and Islamic State militants east of the town of al-Rai and surrounding villages.
There are a lot of reasons to criticize Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who’s increasingly behaving like an old-school autocrat and who has been arresting critics en masse, but he’s actually proving himself to be useful in Syria.
Long criticised for failure to stem the flow of foreign fighters joining ranks with IS, Turkey hopes the ouster of the jihadists from its frontier will drastically improve security.
Cemal, who lost his father in the war, said his family had held on thanks to support from the Turkish people and the opportunities available in the country.
America’s top anti-Islamic State general is putting operations to retake ISIS’s capital city of Raqqa on hold because Turkey is wrangling with USA -backed forces inside Syria.
“From now on, we have to show that we exist in the region”.
The YPG is affiliated with the PKK, a Turkey-orientated Kurdish group, which has always been designated a terrorist organisation by the Turkish state.
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Ankara would not object, Erdogan said.
