The militants were killed around Jarablus, a Syrian town on the border with Turkey, the military said.
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At least 35 civilians were killed, according to activists.
A group monitoring the Syrian war says Turkish air strikes have killed at least 15 civilians on the fifth day of an incursion against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Instead of retreating to the east side of the Euphrates River outside Manbij, YPG in recent weeks has moved to expand westward in a new land grab, according to US and Turkish officials. It leaves Washington in the tough spot of having to choose between its two of its allied forces, and is likely to divert resources from the fight against IS.
But Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and that the army was doing everything to avoid civilian casualties.
Earlier Sunday, Kurdish rebels, apparently targeting a police checkpoint at Diyarbakir Airport, fired a grenade that exploded near the airport’s VIP passenger entrance, shattering windows, the local governor’s office said. But he didn’t specify a goal for the fight against the Kurdish forces.
Turkish security sources said warplanes and artillery had hit Kurdish YPG militia sites near Manbij, a city south of Jarablus that had been captured by Kurdish-aligned SDF this month in a US-backed operation.
In this fight, Turkey has enlisted the aid of rebel groups in Syria they and the USA has been supplying. We are equally resolute regarding Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).
The SDF includes the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, one of the stated targets of Turkey’s intervention in the Syrian war. “Our operations against the separatist organization will continue without interruption”.
US-backed Kurdish forces have also been fighting IS in Syria but Turkey fiercely opposes any move by Kurds to expand into territory lost by the jihadists.
Various factions of the Turkey-backed Syrian rebels said they had seized several villages and towns from Kurdish-led forces south of Jarablus, including Amarneh, where fighting was fiercest in recent days.
Russia, which backs Assad, has endorsed the proposal.
Turkey wants to install the friendly Arab rebels fighting in its current operation along the Manbij-Jarablus corridor as a buffer against Kurdish groups.
“These are areas that Turkey has asked the YPG to pull out of”.
The YPG says its forces have withdrawn from the area and their presence could not be used as a pretext for an attack.
The Observatory said government forces on Sunday resumed shelling and air strikes on the rebel-held Waer district of Homs city, killing three people and wounding another 20.
He said the bombing also targeted al-Amarneh village and that 50 Turkish tanks had been involved in the offensive.
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Ankara also said it struck six ISIL targets in Syria on August 27. Rebels linked to the Kurdish Worker’s Party, PKK, have been fighting for autonomy inside Turkey for decades, and a two-year cease-fire fell apart last year.
