While the government in Damascus is condemning the Turkish incursion as a violation of Syrian sovereignty, on Sunday the Turkish Prime Minister said that Syrian territorial integrity is “essential” for Turkey, as Binali Yildirim vowed to continue military operation south of the border.
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He added that Turkey would never allow an artificial state to be formed in the north of Syria, referring to the so-called Islamic State. Since the Turkish operation began on August 24, the army says it has hit 300 targets with 1,306 rounds.
The private Dogan news agency reported at least 20 tanks and five armored personnel carriers crossed at the Turkish border town of Elbeyli, across from the Syrian rebel-held town of al-Rai. In 12 days of the operation, Turkey’s backed FSA control took almost 600 square kilometers from PYD/PKK and ISIS fighters.
Turkish authorities are also building a wall to boost security along a stretch of its border with Syria, Anadolu reported.
The YPG and its political wing, the PYD, inherited control of the city, though the state’s police force remained.
Yildirim said criticisms of Turkey’s clashes with Kurds in Syria “are without foundation”.
ISIS has lost control of its last territories on the border with Turkey, monitoring groups say, in a major blow to the group’s ability to receive foreign fighters from the rest of the world. The campaign has spurred a humanitarian crisis and caused millions of Syrians to flee for Europe.
Syrian pro-government forces backed by airstrikes launched a wide offensive in the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, capturing areas they lost last month and nearly besieging rebel-held neighborhoods, state media and opposition activists said. Airstrikes by the US-led coalition have killed a number of the group’s most prominent founding members and leaders.
Soon after capturing Jarablus, the Turkish military started to hit positions of the rebel Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), sparking concern in Washington and other parts of the world. “The latest step in U.S. -Turkey cooperation in the fight against #ISIS”. He called it a “huge contradiction” that “some of our friends” have chosen to back one terrorist group to fight another in Syria.
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