Turkish-backed rebels patrolled the town on motorbikes on Wednesday as children played in dusty alleys.
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During the operation, dubbed Euphrates Shield, Turkey has also carried out strikes against the YPG.
Rebels and Turkish forces are now advancing in two directions, to the east from al-Rai and to the west from Jarablus, to seal the border.
“They took several villages, about eight villages”.
Ankara in turn suspects the Islamic State’s involvement in the attack, as those targeted were traveling across the border to help rebuild the battered city of Kobane.
The rebels captured by the YPG were members of the pro-Turkey Sultan Murad Brigade, that has been fighting alongside Turkish army forces in Jarablus.
Ankara is anxious that Kurdish forces are trying to extend their area of control along Turkeys southern border.
Jets hit the targets Friday around midday local time, the army said.
“This is a complicated situation”, Cook said, underscoring the difficulty for the U.S.in trying to keep North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Turkey from attacking the Kurdish force that the U.S.is counting upon to be a main force in the long-planned effort to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria from its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa, south of Jarablus.
HIMARS refers to a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.
Turkey is part of the US -led coalition against Islamic State.
“Our determination continues”, Yildirim said. The PKK is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the USA, but to the dismay of Turkish leaders, Ankara’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies treat the YPG as a separate entity.
The U.S. on Wednesday rejected claims that arms supplies intended for Arab fighters have fallen into the hands of the PKK/YPG.
This is because Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and has stepped up its offensive against the Kurdish militias after a two year ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK broke down last summer, following a bombing that killed 32 young Kurdish and left-wing activists in the south-eastern city of Suruc in July.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said that the nation has wiped off the Islamic State (ISIS) and the Kurdish YPG militia from northern Syria. All terrorists are bad. Ankara says it will not take orders from anyone on how to protect the nation.
The statement did not say whether these “militants” belonged to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group or Kurdish forces.
Turkey has long said it wants a “buffer zone” in the area, although it has not used the term during this incursion.
The bulk of Turkish-backed forces have since moved further south into territory held by militias loyal to the Kurdish-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition supported by Washington in its bid to defeat the jihadists.
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Turkey and Russia suffered a roughly seven-month rupture in relations after Turkey shot down a Russian bomber in November as tensions mounted over Syria, where Moscow and Ankara back opposite sides in the civil war.
