Many of the Turkish-backed rebel groups were too busy trying to fend off Mr. Assad’s resurgent forces in Aleppo to join Turkey on another front against Islamic State.
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The heartwarming photos were taken in the Jerablus district of Aleppo, which has been freed from ISIS control by Syrian rebel fighters, mainly Turks and Arabs, with the backing of Turkish military tanks, jets and special forces.
Turkish-backed forces say they seized a string of villages south of Syria’s Jarablus in a region controlled by groups aligned to the USA – and Kurdish-backed SDF.
Indicating that the USA has balanced its support of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by the YPG militants, by warning them last week that “they should return to the eastern side of the Euphrates River, essentially asking them to cede control of areas” which were seized from DAESH.
Clashes between the Turkish forces and the YPG have been criticized by the Pentagon, which called them “unacceptable”.
Turkey said on Monday it would continue to target the YPG if it failed to retreat east of the Euphrates River.
The Observatory, a Britain-based group, said 20 people were killed and 50 wounded in a battle for the village of Jub Al Kousa fought between Turkey with its allies and Kurdish-backed militias. “We support Syria’s territorial integrity”, he said. In particular, Ankara is now asking the United States to extradite a Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric for alleged involvement in the attempted overthrow, but Obama administration is demanding evidence of participation.
The state media reported a series of cross-border airstrikes into the Gara region in northernmost Iraq, hitting targets which Turkey claimed were linked to the PKK.
The Turkish government asserts that the operation is meant to curb Islamic State expansion in Syria and announced the move shortly after an ISIS attack on a wedding in the city of Gaziantep.
Monitoring groups have reported dozens of civilians killed in the strikes, which Turkey has denied.
But after an easy victory against ISIS, the Syrian rebels headed further south to take on Kurdish fighters?.
“Operation Euphrates Shield” began last week when the government of Islamist president Recep Tayyip Erdogan began moving tanks into Syria.
” Daesh is an acronym for IS”.
The push south of Jarabulus by Turkey and its rebel allies seems meant to prevent Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces from pushing northward and creating a Kurdish buffer zone along the border with Turkey.
McGurk continued: “We want to make clear that we find these clashes – in areas where #ISIL [Isis] is not located – unacceptable and a source of deep concern”.
U.S. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the United States had demanded the YPG must cross back to the eastern side of the Euphrates but said Washington understood this had “largely occurred”.
PYD leaders say they have withdrawn, but their units advise the Syrian Democratic Forces, and it is not clear if any remain west of the Euphrates.
A U.S. official said President Barack Obama will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in China on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, and will discuss the counter-Islamic State campaign in Syria.
President Obama wants to discuss the recent attempted coup in Turkey “as well as our counter ISIL campaign and our efforts that promote stability in Syria and to respond to the refugee crisis”, Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters. Rhodes said he expected Obama to raise those concerns with the close American ally in their meeting in Laos.
Officials in Washington said they warned their Turkish military counterparts Monday that the US won’t provide air support to Turkish forces pushing southward, deeper into Syrian territory.
Turkish-backed troops now appear headed for Manbij which the SDF recently retook from ISIL.
The International Committee of the Red Cross says Monday’s delivery is the second time that the international aid group is entering the area since 2015.
“If that happens, it means Syria has been divided”, he added, quoted by NTV television.
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He said all relevant parties had been forewarned of Turkey’s operation in Syria, including the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a bitter enemy of Ankara who had been informed by its ally Russian Federation.
