Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency reported the advance “has removed terror organisation Daesh’s (IS) physical contact with the Turkish border in northern Syria”.
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As of Sunday, ISIS no longer controls any territory along the Syrian-Turkish border, after advances by Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies, according to Turkish authorities and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Turkey sent tanks into Syria on August 24 as part of the so-called Euphrates Shield operation aimed at ousting Islamic State fighters and halting an advance by Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara sees as allies of the outlawed PKK that’s been waging a 30-year insurgency inside Turkey.
The Turkish military launched an incursion into northern Syria last month with the stated aims of clearing Islamic State from its last foothold at the border and preventing expansion by the Kurdish YPG militia that is seen as a threat by Ankara. The Turkey-backed rebels, primarily Ahrar al-Sham and a faction of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), have said they had only 1,000 – 1,200 troops in Jarabulus.
The military said two Turkey-backed Syrian rebels were killed and two wounded rebels were also evacuated.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Turkey could take part in a future operation to liberate the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State group militants.
Now, with Syria’s 911-kilometre border with Turkey entirely under the control of rebels and the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces, ISIL is cut off from the world.
Islamic State used the area, northeast of Aleppo, to bring foreign fighters into its territories in Iraq and Syria. “I said there would be no problem from our perspective”.
“We have said that if there is one more rocket here, we will destroy you”. The president had said a specific Turkish role would depend on further talks.
But NATO member Turkey, an active participant of the anti-IS coalition, considers the YPG a “terrorist” group and has been alarmed by its expansion along the border, fearing the creation of a contiguous, semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria.
While vital Turkish support for north Aleppo rebels continues for now, “we do not have any information about whether Turkish forces intend to advance with us towards al-Bab or Manbij”, a media source with the Syrian rebel al-Jabha a-Shamiya told Syria Direct on Monday, requesting anonymity. The system – created to reduce potential collateral damage as it impacts at a high angle and has a relatively small blast radius – was sacked out of southern Turkey, a U.S. official said.
The Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Syrian TV aired footage showing massive damage to the area, with a number of smashed cars and the bloodied body of a guard at the checkpoint.
USA officials have welcomed Turkish efforts to dislodge Islamic State from Syrian strongholds but voiced concern when Turkish troops engaged fighters aligned to the YPG, a force Washington sees as a valuable ally in battling jihadists.
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It would oblige Russian Federation to prevent warplanes from bombing areas held by mainstream opposition, require the withdrawal of Damascus’s forces from a supply route north of Aleppo, and focus on delivery of humanitarian aid unhindered by warring sides to the city’s population, said the letter, dated September 3.
