One Turkish soldier was killed when Kurdish units attacked Turkish tanks, while villagers in the area say Turkish airstrikes killed dozens of civilians.
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The Euphrates Shield operation started on August 24 in the northern Syrian city of Jarablus and was backed by a US-led worldwide coalition.
While Turkey and its rebel proxies have targeted ISIL in their campaign, they have also targeted the Kurdish YPG forces – United States allies that have been the most effective fighting force on the ground against ISIL in Syria, but a group that Ankara considers to be terrorists.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and has warned the USA against attempts to create an “artificial state” in northern Syria.
The group, also known by the acronym ISIS, has suffered a string of defeats in recent months in both Syria and Iraq. It said the incursion, dubbed Operation Euphrates Shield, was meant to engage the Daesh Takfiri terrorists in the Syrian-Turkish border area as well as Kurdish fighters, who were themselves fighting Daesh.
“The Turkish border with Syria was cleared Sunday of Daesh terrorists”, Anadolu reported.
At the time, almost 40 Turkish tanks backed by some 1,000 Syrian rebel forces entered Syria.
“We will never allow an artificial state in Syria’s north”, he said, apparently referring to USA -backed Kurdish forces, who have taken a large swath of territory from IS along the border.
The next goal of the Turkish operation, according to presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, is Al-Bab, a large town halfway between Aleppo and the border town of Jarabulus, and an Islamic State stronghold in the area.
While Turkey is a member of the US-led anti-ISIL coalition, the country has been accused of not taking the ISIL threat seriously and fighters crossed into ISIL territory easily from Turkish border towns.
On Saturday, Turkey sent tanks and armored vehicles into the Syrian border town of Al-Rai, effectively opening a new front in its campaign against ISIS, Turkish state media reported.
Still, Obama and President Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation are expected to meet Monday.
The Prime-Minister of Turkey Binali Yildirim announced that “all terrorist organisations” were pushed back from the Turkey-Syria border.
Turkey, which distrusts the Kurdish-led forces due to their links with banned Kurdish rebels operating on its own territory, feared that the capture of Minbij would lead to the Kurds advancing further west and linking up with an enclave they control in the far northwest of Syria.
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Other attacks hit government-held Homs city, an army checkpoint on a road outside Damascus, and a Kurdish security forces checkpoint in Hasakeh city. “We are there to protect our borders, ensure the safety of our citizens’ lives and property, and to protect the territorial integrity of Syria”, Yildirim said in Diyarbakir.
