Late on September 6, three more Turkish soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in an ISIL attack on two tanks near the town of al-Rai in northern Syria.
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Isik also said that YPG fighters had still not retreated east of the Euphrates river as promised after a USA -backed operation to take the Syrian town of Manbij from Islamic State.
Erdogan s comments came two weeks after Turkey launched an ambitious operation inside Syria, sending tanks and special forces to back up Syrian opposition fighters and remove IS jihadists and Kurdish militia from its frontier.
Loaded with luggage and possessions, hundreds of civilians began returning to Jarabulus on Wednesday, forming long queues at the border gate outside the Turkish town of Karkamis, an AFP photographer said.
To encourage returnees, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Turkey would supply mains power to Jarablus on Saturday, followed by water supplies two days later. Turkey’s opposition to the only reliable USA proxy in Syria raises questions as to which force, if any, could realistically assault Raqqa.
Turkey and the United States are already at odds over control of another town, Manbij, some 30 km (20 miles) south of the Turkish border, which was captured last month from Islamic State by a USA -backed coalition that includes the YPG.
The American official noted that Turkish operation in Jarablus also prevented the movement of Daesh and foreign fighters between Syria and Turkey, stating that there is American-Turkish cooperation with the moderate Syrian opposition, including logistic and aerial support in Manbij and Jarablus.
Turkey and Russian Federation have been on opposite sides of Syria’s five-and-a-half-year civil war, with Moscow backing Assad and Ankara supporting the opposition against him.
The ministry expressed worries about the incursion of Turkish soldiers and pro-Ankara Syria militants deeper into Syrian soil, saying, “This calls into question the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic”.
“It will not be a massive 30,000, 40,000 soldiers entering into Syria”, said Turkish political columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website.
And there’s more good news where that came from: Erdogan told U.S. President Barack Obama that he’s willing to, together with the U.S., launch an operation against ISIS’s Syrian capital of Raqqa.
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USA 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.
