The statement from the prime minister’s office didn’t provide a breakdown of the suspects by the groups they are believed to be linked to.
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The move further embroils Turkey, a key North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, in Syria’s civil war, and also catapults it into a front-line position in the global war against IS.
U.S.-led air strikes assisted the Kurds in the assault, said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Observatory.
“The goal is to establish an ISIL-free zone and ensure greater security and stability along Turkey’s border with Syria”, the US official, who asked not to be named, told AFP using another acronym for the jihadist group.
Turkey says it has secured an agreement with the Obama administration to jointly secure a zone in a small part of northern Syria. They [the government] are launching cross-border operations against [the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant] ISIL to show off. These are efforts to save power and were instructed by the palace [the president]. Turkey said its aircraft would join the air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria.
Over the weekend, Turkish forces launched airstrikes on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, destroying warehouses, barracks and logistically important positions of the PKK.
Turkey has battled PKK insurgents on its own territory in a conflict that has killed about 40,000 people since 1984.
“Turkey has been reluctant to aid the coalition air strikes and open Incirlik“, Tugtan says.
The renewed military campaign and the arrests targetting the PKK, which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state partly from camps in northern Iraq, has raised suspicions that Turkey’s real agenda is checking Kurdish territorial ambitions rather than fighting the IS group.
The YPG is closely allied with the PKK, which is based in Turkey and Iraq.
Sarrin lies along the M4 highway, which IS uses to transport fighters and supplies between Aleppo province and the group’s de facto Syrian capital of Raqa in the east, Abdel Rahman said. The PKK has said the actions have rendered the peace process meaningless.
The PKK claims Turkey supports ISIL against Syrian Kurds, whose YPG militia is affiliated with the PKK.
But the zone being talked about by the Turks not only includes towns of strategic and symbolic importance for the Islamic State group, but also towns such as al-Bab, which has been targeted by Syrian helicopters and warplanes, risking clashes with the Syrian government.
According to a statement from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), its positions in Zur Maghar came under “heavy tank fire” from Turkey, reports Agence France-Presse.
Davutoglu also said Turkey wanted to clear its border of IS extremists.
“The Syrian Kurds are not a target of the operations”.
Amri said that the Turkish crackdown was in response to Kurdish gains in Syria against ISIS near the Turkish border. Following a year of debate over how best to engage with IS, these recent attacks left Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with little option.
Some 500 police swept through the Haci Bayram district of Ankara on Monday and detained 15 Islamic State suspects, 11 of them foreign, the pro-government Yeni Safak daily said.
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Mr Davutoglu, who has said the operations will continue as long as Turkey faces a threat, discussed security with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a telephone call overnight. Turkey hopes the “safe zone” will eventually encourage some Syrian refugees to return home.
