Turkey-backed forces may go deeper into Syria after securing a 90 km (56 mile) stretch of land along the Turkish border, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said on Wednesday.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that government troops captured the academy, adding that insurgents have launched a counteroffensive.
The private Dogan news agency reported at least 20 tanks and five armored personnel carriers crossed at the Turkish border town of Elbeyli, across from the Syrian rebel-held town of al-Rai.
This comes just one day after the Turkish government sent military reinforcements to the Syrian northern city of Jarablus, that’s been taken by the Turkish forces and allied rebels of the Euphrates Shield Brigades on August 24 without resistance from ISIS.
Turkey, which considers the YPG a terrorist organisation and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), fears that gains by the Syrian Kurdish YPG will strengthen militants at home.
The territorial losses at the border were the biggest blow to the militant group that also has suffered a series of recent battlefield setbacks in Syria and Iraq.
“This is an important step forward in the fight against ISIL”, a US official said, using Washington’s acronym for Islamic State.
Syrian President Bashar Assad wants to fully recapture divided Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war.
Sunday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said border territory stretching from Azaz northeastward to Jarublus had been cleared.
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly said that Turkey’s allies should differentiate between Islamic State and the YPG as both groups pose a threat to Turkey, said: “It is our wish that a terror corridor not be formed across our southern border”.
Turkey asked Russian Federation for a military ground support as part of the “Shield of the Euphrates” operation in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, TRT Haber reported September 6.
By nightfall, Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish forces seized seven villages from the Islamic State, according to local journalist Ahmad al-Khatib.
Commenting on the expected visit of the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Turkey Sept. 8-9, Kuloglu said it is not ruled out that the parties will discuss the possibilities of closing the airspace over the northern Syria.
Turkey intervened militarily in Syria’s war less than two weeks ago by launching Operation Euphrates Shield.
Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have also fought US -backed Kurdish forces known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, around Jarablus.
But much of the earlier work to push IS back from the border was done by the YPG and its allies.
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Now there are 250,000 civilians living in the areas of Aleppo controlled by terror group ISIS.
