Three Turkish soldiers were killed and five others wounded during clashes with Daesh in northern Syria, government sources in Ankara said on Tuesday.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday suggested Turkey and the USA are ready to drive the Islamic State from its Syrian stronghold of al-Raqqa.
Turkish military launched Operation Euphrates Shield last month, driving Isis from the Turkey-Syria border and effectively cutting off one of the group’s major supply corridors.
Turkish state media have subsequently broadcast footage repeatedly of life returning to normal inside Jarablus following the departure of DAESH, showing shops re-opening and children playing in the streets.
Speaking to reporters on his plane back from the G20 summit in China on Monday, Erdogan said Turkey’s military was ready to join any offensive on Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital.
Three other strikes near Deir Ezzor, close to Syria’s border with Iraq, demolished 13 ISIS oil tanker trucks and a tractor trailer, and strikes near Manbij destroyed an ISIS fighting position.
“We return to the embrace of our country, Syria, our dearest country, and to Jarablus we return”. “I said there would be no problem from our perspective”.
Operations in Mosul and Raqqa are vitally important if Iraq and Syria are to be cleansed of Daesh, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday, Anadolu Agency reported September 8. Turkey plunged into Syria with ground forces for the first time. But there is no doubt that in August, the Syrian Kurdish leadership, whose forces have been making spectacular advances on the ground since they won the battle of Kobani against Isis in early 2015 so they control a swathe of northern Syria, were in trouble on several fronts.
Without giving further details, he said: “What can be done will become clear after the discussions”.
Tension is high in southeastern Turkey since the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and European Union – resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July past year.
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.
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Erdogan said that Turkish Armed Forces may also participate in the operation for the liberation of the Iraqi city of Mosul. “This calls into question the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
