Turkey has so far hailed its operation as a success and Isis jihadists were at the weekend expelled from their last positions along the Turkish-Syrian border, depriving the group of a key transit point for recruits and supplies.
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Flying back from attending the Group of 20 summit in China, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday told reporters he had agreed to a proposal by his USA counterpart, Barack Obama, to work together to remove IS from Raqqa.
While Turkey’s president says Ankara and Washington are discussing joint military action in Raqqa, the Syrian headquarters of the Islamic State group, Turkey’s options may be limited.
Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24.
Turkey has insisted that the Kurdish fighters pull back east of the Euphrates river following the operation, and warned that they will be legitimate targets for Turkish forces and the Syrian rebels Turkey backs if they fail to do so.
The army said Turkey’s rebel allies had taken six more villages, located in Islamic State-held areas, adding to dozens of settlements now under the control of Turkish-backed forces.
“Obama wants to do some things jointly concerning Raqqa”, Mr Erdogan told a group of journalists during his return flight from the G-20 summit meeting in China on Tuesday.
The US State Department would not confirm the details of Mr Erdogan’s statement, but an official said it was important that “local forces” were involved in the fight to deliver “a lasting defeat” to IS.
“We said, “Let our soldiers come together, whatever is necessary will be done”, Erdogan said.
Nevertheless, the U.S. says that they will continue to support both.
Erdogan also said Turkish and U.S. military officials could meet to discuss the issue, according to Turkish media.
AFAD said it is preparing to create a camp in Syria.
The operation is also meant to deter further advances by Syrian Kurds allied with Turkish separatists.
Three Turkish soldiers have been killed and one wounded during clashes with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters in northern Syria, according to Turkey’s armed forces.
The three killed by IS were not Turkey’s first casualties following the launch of the incursion, though they were the first fatalities at the hands of the militant group since the operation began.
“But at this stage we have to show our presence in the region, ” he said.
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US officials have welcomed Turkish efforts to dislodge Islamic State from Syrian strongholds but voiced concern when Turkish troops engaged fighters aligned to the YPG, a force Washington sees as a valuable ally in battling jihadists. Four others were wounded, it said.
