Turkish special forces entered Syria earlier as part of the offensive.
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Turkey’s army and worldwide coalition forces on Wednesday began an operation to drive Islamic State (IS) jihadists out of a key Syrian border town, a statement from the Turkish prime minister’s office said.
On Monday, the new United States commander, General Townsend, said Washington would step up its operations in support of its proxy forces as they prepared offensives to retake Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria from ISIS.
Turkish media are saying that Turkey’s artillery has shelled Islamic State targets across the border in Syria.
The Turkish army began shelling Jarablus at about 04:00 local time (01:00 GMT), the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
The visit comes at a hard time for ties between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies. While he is expected to discuss developments in Syria, it is likely that Washington would also try to mend its strained relations with Ankara, especially following Turkey’s failed military coup attempt.
The move is likely to cause tensions with US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria, who are also looking to strike in the same area in their operations against IS.
Jarablus is a vital supply line and the last border point that directly connects ISIL with Turkey and the outside world, and separates Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria.
But critics of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan say it is too late for Ankara to act against the militants.
Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said the Jarablus operation meant to safeguard Turkey’s security and that Ankara “cannot sit and watch”. The activist group, which tracks the war through a network of local residents and fighters, said Turkish tanks and anti-mine vehicles crossed into Syria and were heading to Jarablus on Wednesday morning.
Turkey has vowed full support in pushing ISIL out of the key Syrian border town of Jarabulus as expectations grew on Tuesday that Ankara was preparing a major offensive against the extremists.
The plan has not been confirmed by the Turkish authorities but Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday that the border area had to be “totally cleansed” of jihadists.
Turkey’s special forces have launched an operation along the border it shares with Syria in a bid to wipe out Islamic State (Isis) militants from the war-torn region.
The agency says the operation aims to clear Turkey’s border of “terror organizations” and increase border security.
In fighting on Tuesday, two mortar rounds fired from an Isis-controlled area in Syria hit the south-eastern Turkish town of Karkamış, Turkish television reported. The operation comes four days after a suicide bomber said to be linked to Islamic State killed at least 54 people at a wedding in Turkey’s largely Kurdish city of Gaziantep.
“The Turkish state officially supports Daesh and bombs the positions of the Manbij military council and its countryside in the northern axis of the defence positions at Sajur river”, SDF spokesperson Sharvan Darwish said on Monday.
An official with the US -backed Syrian Democratic Forces on the Syrian side of the border claimed the fighters allegedly gathering in Turkey include “terrorists” as well as Turkish special forces operators.
The U.S. has special forces on the ground in northern Syria with the Kurdish-led forces.
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On Tuesday Hasaka’s remaining government officials were confined to a few buildings in the city centre while the rest of the city was under Kurdish control, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Director Rami Abdulrahman said.
