Turkey, a strong backer of the Syrian opposition, moved hundreds of rebel fighters into the northern border area two weeks ago for its first ground operation inside Syria. The operation was carried out on August 24 when US Vice President Joe Biden was in Turkey where he confirmed that the operation is agreed with the allies.
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But Turkey’s tactics have drawn criticism from its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States and also from Russian Federation, with which it recently patched up ties.
Another five soldiers were wounded in a rocket attack on Turkish tanks, the military said in a statement. Even though both countries nominally oppose Islamic State and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the USA places a greater priority on defeating Islamic State. “We wouldn’t consider anything before that as formal passage”, a spokesman at the governor’s office for Gaziantep province, which lies across the border from Jarabulus, said.
“Some groups of Syrian refugees are voluntarily leaving Turkey and settling in Syria’s Jarabulus, previously liberated from the IS militants as part of the Shield of the Euphrates operation”, AFAD said.
The diplomatic sources said that Turkey wants to keep the YPG forces away from the upcoming battles against ISIS, and therefore, Ankara is offering Washington that the Free Syrian Army replace these forces.
Loaded with luggage and domestic items, the residents headed for the frontier and queued for customs inspection at the border gate outside the Turkish town of Karkamis, an AFP photographer said.
He said there were 292 people in the first group of registered returnees, including women, children and the elderly.
The army also said on Tuesday “44 targets were struck 153 times with precision by Firtina howitzers in a region identified as belonging to terrorists”, adding that coalition warplanes also launched air raids on IS positions. “If we take a backward step terror groups like Daesh, PKK, PYD and YPG will settle there”, Erdogan said, according to Hurriyet.
Ousting IS from the city would be a turning point in the conflict and mark a huge blow to the jihadists.
Further south and west of Jarablus, Turkish forces have continued fighting.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were intense clashes Tuesday between the Turkish-backed rebels and Islamic State militants east of the town of al-Rai and surrounding villages.
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On the sidelines of the G20 summit in China, Turkish President Erdogan told the press it “would not be a problem” to join the United States in its campaign to eradicate Islamic State terrorists firmly established in Raqqa, their Syrian stronghold.
