While the government in Damascus is condemning the Turkish incursion as a violation of Syrian sovereignty, on Sunday the Turkish Prime Minister said that Syrian territorial integrity is “essential” for Turkey, as Binali Yildirim vowed to continue military operation south of the border.
Advertisement
Ahmed Osman, commander of the Sultan Murad rebel group, one of the Turkish-backed forces, told Reuters he would like to see a permanent “safe zone” but that this would require an agreement between Turkey, the United States and Russian Federation.
But it lost most of its border territory to Kurdish-led Syrian forces backed by US-led airstrikes who forced it from parts of northeastern Syria after defeating it in the battle for the border town of Kobane in 2015.
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.
The Britain-based monitor said “rebels and Islamist factions backed by Turkish tanks and warplanes” had taken several villages on the border “after IS withdrew from them, ending IS’s presence”.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and has warned the USA against attempts to create an “artificial state” in northern Syria.
But NATO member Turkey, an active participant of the anti-IS coalition, considers the YPG a “terrorist” group and has been alarmed by its expansion along the border, fearing the creation of a contiguous, semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria.
Fighters of the Syria Democratic Forces fire a mortar shell towards positions held by Islamic State fighters in northern province of Raqqa, Syria May 27, 2016.
“We have said that if there is one more rocket here, we will destroy you”. The wall is being erected from Karkamis, a Turkish town across the border from Jarablus, to Suruc, which lies across from the Syrian town of Kobane.
Ankara-Six Syrian villages in Aleppo are now under the control of Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces as part of Operation Euphrates Shield which began on August 24, the Turkish Army announced.
In Hangzhou, China, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said the US and Russian Federation have not given up on negotiations to halt the bloodshed in Syria, but acknowledged that “gaps of trust” exist between the rival powers.
The fatalities are the first of the Turkish operation inside Syria to be blamed on IS and Ankara’s biggest single loss of life in the offensive to date.
Turkey’s recent intervention in the north has exposed major rifts and encouraged anti-Kurdish activity, Cafarella said in emails to The Associated Press. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to fully recapture divided Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war.
Syria’s state-run news agency SANA confirmed the report, adding that “army units, in cooperation with allied forces, carried out a special and swift military operation, establishing full control over Armament Academy and expanding their control in the area of military academies to the south of Aleppo city”.
Any Turkish role would be have to be determined in further talks, he said.
Advertisement
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said it fired at Syrian army cannons in the Syrian Golan Heights in response to mortar fire from Syria that hit the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
