Turkish forces have reportedly pushed Islamic State militants from areas along the Turkish-Syrian border, according to Turkish media.
Advertisement
“The Jarablus-Azaz line is totally under the control of FSA (Free Syrian Army) backed by coalition forces”, a Turkish armed forces member told CNN Sunday.
‘We are there to protect our border, to provide for our citizens safety of life and property, and to ensure Syria’s integrity, ‘ Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a speech on Sunday, discussing the incursion, which Ankara calls Euphrates Shield. “All the terrorist organizations are pushed back, they are gone”, Yildirim said, speaking at a dinner with nongovernment organizations in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.
The rebels captured the frontier between Azaz and Jarablus after taking 20 villages from the so-called Islamic State group.
Turkey is opposed to Washington’s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, one of the most effective forces on the ground in the fight against ISIS, viewing them as indistinct from outlawed Kurdish militants fighting a long insurgency in southeast Turkey.
SANA said “Syrian army air force carried out intensive air strikes against gatherings and fortifications of Jaish al-Fateh terrorists in Aleppo countryside, destroying a number of their vehicles and killing scores of them and injuring others”.
Turkey has launched two incursions into Syria since August 24 in an operation created to drive the Islamic State away from the border and prevent the advance of USA -backed Kurdish forces, which are also battling the extremist group.
After the government first laid siege on Aleppo 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.
Earlier Sunday, US President Barack Obama suggested an agreement was in sight. -Russian military partnership against extremist groups operating in Syria.
Meanwhile, IS has lost control of its last territories on the border with Turkey, monitoring groups say, in a major blow to the group’s ability to receive foreign fighters from the rest of the world.
State TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that troops are now in full control of the military academies south of Aleppo and were “chasing the remnant of terrorists”.
“We can’t now cross the road to Aleppo even on foot”.
The Observatory said the target was a security checkpoint at the southern entrance of the coastal city, a government stronghold that is home to a large Russian naval base. “The [rebel-held] neighborhoods are under siege again”, said the Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, by telephone. “I’ve said all along we’re not going to rush and we’re not going to do something that we think is less than what we believe is a legitimate opportunity to be able to try to get the job done”.
Advertisement
Neither side on Sunday explained in detail which sticking points remain. They fired at the vehicle, forcing two passengers to get out and the driver to blow it up, Bittar said. 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.
