The Euphrates Shield operation started on August 24 in the northern Syrian city of Jarablus when Turkish forces crossed into Syria under the pretext of targeting Islamic State positions along the border. “There is no more Isis at the border”.
Advertisement
The Islamic States (IS) militants lost control of their last territory along the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkish military told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.
Turkish forces and Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army fighters recaptured the town of Jarablus, cutting off money and supplies, and possible recruits, Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu reported.
Syria’s second city has been under constant bombardment and has been a key battleground in the war against ISIS since 2012. But for rebels from three factions that participated in the battles who spoke to Syria Direct on Monday, the answer is clear: the IS-held north Aleppo city of al-Bab.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday that the terror group has effectively lost its contact with the outside world, after losing the remaining border villages between the Sajur River in the southern suburbs of Jarablus and Al-Rai.
Military acts of the Armed Forces allow Turkey to maintain control over the territory of the Kurds’ People’s Protection Units, which are being backed by the US.
Less than two weeks after Operation Euphrates Shield was launched, the Turkish Army-supported Free Syrian Army fighters have liberated an area from almost 600 square km of PYD/PKK and Daesh terrorists.
Turkey is fighting a three-decade-old Kurdish insurgency in the southeast and fears that gains by the Syrian Kurdish YPG will embolden militants at home.
After the government laid siege on Aleppo for the first time in July, the United Nations said that almost 300,000 residents were trapped in rebel-held neighborhoods, making it the largest besieged area in war-torn Syria. The country considers YPG an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), an insurgent group that it has been battling with for nearly three decades. The Turkey-backed forces are now advancing toward each other from both towns, hoping to close off the last stretch of the Syrian border ruled by the extremists. “But this area is still very thin and vulnerable to attacks from the other side”, said a senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity so as to discuss the strategy more freely. The system – created to reduce potential collateral damage as it impacts at a high angle and has a relatively small blast radius – was sacked out of southern Turkey, a U.S. official said. Turkey has long pushed for a safe zone in Syria between the two towns, with a plan to house Syrian refugees there.
A senior US State Department official said fresh crisis talks between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the margins of the Group of 20 summit in China ended without agreement. The attacks were timed to coincide with the morning rush hour. Doing so may result in civil and/or criminal penalties. Both the United States and Turkey are in favor of regime change in the war-torn country.
Also on Sunday, Syrian government forces put rebel-held districts in the east of Aleppo under siege once again, monitors said.
Advertisement
“These are our villages and cities, even if Ankara doesn’t participate with us”.
