Erdogan, speaking on his plane after a visit to China, said President Barack Obama personally asked for joint action against the militants’ stronghold in Raqqa, about 60 miles south of the Turkish border, Hurriyet and other newspapers reported.
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“Obama wants to do some things jointly concerning Raqqa”, Mr Erdogan said.
Ankara considers the PYD, which is the political wing of the YPG in Syria as a prolongation of the PKK, classified by Turkey as a terrorist organization. “If there are some issues with Armenians, Turkey can always make its voice heard which is not beneficial for us”, she said.
Turkey, which is battling a Kurdish insurgency at home, launched an incursion into northern Syria last month with the stated aims of clearing Islamic State from its border and preventing the Kurdish YPG militia expanding into new territory. It has also said it would support any U.S. initiative to strike Islamic State’s stronghold of Raqqa, further to the southeast.
Heavy Turkish shelling across the border into Syria killed six US-backed Kurdish fighters and wounded several civilians, a monitoring group said on Thursday.
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“Turkey will not allow YPG forces to extend their territory and gain power by using the Daesh operations as an excuse”, he said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
“Soldiers of the caliphate. targeted two tanks belonging to the apostate Turkish army with guided rockets”, the group said in a statement circulated on social media late on Tuesday.
“A Turkish involvement in any other form would be similar to those of other countries in the Syrian conflict”, Eisa said. Two Turkish soldiers were dead at the site of the attack; the third died later from his injuries, the news agency reported, citing the military.
The territorial losses at the border were the biggest blow to the militant group, which also has suffered a series of recent battlefield setbacks elsewhere in Syria and in neighboring Iraq.
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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.
