The military also said the Free Syrian Army, a loose-knit rebel force backed by Turkey, had taken six more villages, also located in Islamic State-held areas.
Advertisement
The border town of Jarablus, which Syrian rebels and Turkish forces recently recaptured from the terror group, is a critical location for supplies, money and fighters coming in and out of ISIS-held areas.
According to the British-based monitor, “rebels and Islamist factions backed by Turkish tanks and warplanes” had taken control of several villages along the border “after IS withdrew from them, ending IS’s presence. on the border”.
Three hours before the Turkish-rebel advance was complete, Isis was still reported as holding four villages. Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to bolster President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Turkish armored units, artillery and air force took part in the battles, along with some 1,000 Syrian rebel fighters and air support from the US -led coalition against Islamic State.
However, besides ISIS, the FSA and Turkey are clashing with the Kurdish YPG militia, which is part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Some 10 days ago, Turkey mounted its first full-scale incursion into Syrian territory since the conflict began in 2011, aimed at IS and at US -backed Kurdish forces in the area, which have also been battling the jihadists.
Turkey should put pressure on the U.S. 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 Turkish military responded to the rockets Saturday with howitzers, striking two weapons depots and bunkers and “destroying the locations and the Daesh terrorists there”, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, referring to the Islamic State by an Arabic acronym. However, that could sharpen tensions with the United States over Syria policy. Since then, government forces and their allies have been trying to recapture the area.
Aleppo has been divided by the country’s bitter civil war, with various rebel groups controlling parts of the east of the city and pro-government forces the west.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in a joint press conference with Obama in China that “our wish is that a terror corridor does not form on our southern border”.
The city, which is Syria’s third-largest, is largely under government control, with only one neighborhood still held by rebels.
“We will continue our operations (in Syria) until we fully guarantee security of life and property for our citizens and the security of our border…”
The Islamic State group claimed twin suicide bombings in the neighboring coastal towns of Tartus and Jableh in May that killed over 160 people.
Advertisement
The traffic went both ways, and operatives who participated in attacks in Turkey as well as Paris and Belgium had crossed back across the border from Islamic State territory.
