Ankara has frequently voiced its concern over the YPG’s activity along the Turkish border and has been rigid in its stance in not allowing the Democratic Union Party (PYD) militant group to found any kind of de facto Kurdish state in northern Syria.
Advertisement
State TV said Saturday that Daraya was clear of gunmen, and is under the control of the Syrian army.
On Aug. 24 morning, the Turkish Air Force with the support of the coalition aircraft launched an operation to liberate the city of Jarabulus from the IS militants in northern Syria, near Aleppo city.
On Thursday, Turkey had already shelled Syrian Kurdish targets near Jarabulus in what was seen as a warning to them to retreat. In the wake of “Euphrates Shield”, both sides have engaged in what amounts to a land-grab aimed at denying the other control of the border territories even while they continue clashes with Islamic State fighters still bunkered in some areas. A news report on ANHA, the news agency for the semi-autonomous Kurdish areas, said local fighters destroyed a Turkish tank and killed a number of fighters in an attack by the Turkish military and allied groups on Amarneh.
John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, said on Wednesday during a visit to Turkey that the YPG should withdraw east of the Euphrates, and that a refusal to do so would mean an end to Washington’s support for the group.
In Syria’s northwest, fighting continued to rage between Syrian government forces and rebels in the battered city of Aleppo, in spite of tentative plans for a 48-hour ceasefire.
“No corridor, period. No separate entity on the Turkish border”, said Biden in a press conference on Wednesday, adding that “elements that were part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. must move back across the [Eurphrates] river”.
The roughly 8,000 civilians left in the town are also to be evacuated. Minutes later, Khandakani said another barrel bomb was dropped, injuring an ambulance driver, and hampering rescue efforts.
Hundreds of fighters and their families were bused north into rebel-held territory in Idlib province. The rebels said they were forced to give up the town because of deteriorating humanitarian conditions, accusing Damascus of “starve or surrender” tactics.
The Jarablus Military Council says the airstrikes Saturday on their bases in Amarneh village marked an “unprecedented and unsafe escalation” and came after Turkish artillery shelled the positions the day before.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the airstrikes.
“People of Kobane demonstrate on the border against Turkish violations of building a wall and cross inside Syria”, said Idris Nassan, a former senior official in the Kobane administration.
The Jarablus Military Council is supported by the US -backed and Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces.
Advertisement
Anadolu said pro-Ankara fighters – backed by Turkish troops and firepower – had now taken five more villages from IS after the capture of Jarablus.
