Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
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The operation was launched hours before US Vice President Joe Biden was due in Ankara for talks that include developments in Syria.
Turkey has warned repeatedly that it would not permit the YPG to advance into areas west of the Euphrates.
Fighters from the powerful and ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham brigade are also present, he said and confirmed Anadolu’s report that the rebels seized the IS-held village of Kaklijeh near Jarablus.
Haber Turk television, citing unnamed military sources, said a ground offensive has not started. But they have common ground in battling Islamic State.
Biden’s visit comes at a testing time for Turkish-U.S. relations.
However Yildirim on Monday said Turkey still had no clue who carried out the attack. “Otherwise, and I say this clearly, we will do what is necessary”. Gulen denies any involvement in the attempted coup.
Tensions had flared across the Syria-Turkey border the previous day, with Turkish forces pounding jihadists with artillery strikes following rocket fire from the Syrian town of Jarablus.
Turkish media are saying that Turkey’s artillery has shelled Islamic State targets across the border in Syria.
Denying the militants access to the border cuts off a potential route for supplies and bringing in fighters.
The U.S. touted the operation as a success, but Ankara saw it as another step towards the linking of Kurdish-controlled areas along the Syrian-Turkish border; the YPG holds sway over a 170-mile swath of land extending from Syria’s northeastern tip to the town of Kobani as well as part of Aleppo province.
The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the US-backed campaign against Islamic State, took near complete control of Hasaka city on Tuesday.
Preventing a new flow of refugees and delivering aid to the region’s civilian population are also among the goals of the operation, officials said.
A total of 63 targets have been fired at 224 times with Turkish artillery and shelling.
Earlier Wednesday, NTV said a small number of Turkish special forces had crossed into Syria as part of the operation.
The town is 20 miles from the city of Manbij, which was liberated from the Islamic State by Kurdish-led forces earlier this month.
Their growing sway has been alarming Ankara, which is fighting its own insurgency with Kurdish PKK militants.
The U.S. official acknowledged Turkey had not been happy about the Manbij operation but said Washington underlined the Kurds would pull back once the city was cleared and that they would not move north, addressing a major Turkish concern.
The operation is receiving air support.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Wednesday’s operation was launched in response to a string of attacks in Turkey, including a suicide bomb attack at a wedding party near the border which killed 54 people.
At least nine mortar shells from Jarabulus landed in Karkamis and nearby on Tuesday, forcing many residents to flee, a Reuters witness said.
Turkish tanks and members of the Free Syrian Army pass the Syrian border.
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A war correspondent and military analyst tweeted the tanks were supported by up to 1,500 “moderate rebels” who they met at the border before beginning their attack.
