The question of the Kurdish militias has complicated cooperation between Turkey and the United States, NATO allies and partners in their fight against ISIS in Syria.
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The advance cuts off IS supply lines it used to import fighters and weapons.
“From Azaz to Jarabulus, our 91-kilometre border has been completely secured”.
The rebels – who are predominantly Syrian Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army – took charge of the frontier between Azaz and Jarablus after seizing 20 villages from the Sunni hard-line group, the Turkish military said in a statement.
Nine more villages in northern Syria were cleared of Daesh terrorists by the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces as part of Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey’s armed forces said Monday. The fast-paced siege by Turkey and the FSA appears to have been too much for ISIS fighters to repel, forcing them to retreat further into the so-called caliphate and away from the border.
The Islamic State’s defeat in the border area had been inevitable since Turkey dispatched troops and tanks into Syria on August 24 into Syria to support a long-stalled Syrian rebel offensive there, bringing new muscle to the fight.
The casualties were the result of separate military operations in the southeastern province of Hakkari and eastern province of Van against members of the “separatist terror organization”, Turkey’s description of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey and its allies consider a terrorist organization.
With Turkey’s rapid success in less than two weeks, his position looks stronger with territory in between the two Kurdish “cantons” of Afrin and Kobane now in the hands of Ankara-backed rebels.
Reports said government troops had recaptured two military academy sites in the south of the city and severed a recently-established rebel supply line.
Ankara has said its military campaign is aimed at “cleansing” the region of Daesh and preventing Kurdish forces from gaining power in the ensuing void.
Washington found itself trapped between two key allies who are bitter foes – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partner Turkey, and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, also taking part in the war against the Islamic State jihadist group but considered a “terrorist” group by Ankara.
In Turkey itself, Kurds have been fighting for independence for three decades in the southeast, and the PKK in that country is classed as a terrorist group by both Turkey and the US. The wall is being erected from Karkamis, a Turkish town across the border from Jarablus, to Suruc, which lies across from the Syrian town of Kobane.
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In Hangzhou, China, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said the US and Russian Federation have not given up on negotiations to halt the bloodshed in Syria, but acknowledged that “gaps of trust” exist between the rival powers. “By liberating Afrin from the PYD, Turkey can ensure the security of Turkomans residing in the areas near the Turkish border”, said the expert.
