Footage filmed by a Sky News cameraman in Jarablus shows Turkish-backed Syrian rebels firing on Kurdish positions, as well as Turkish tanks positioned inside Syria.
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Turkish President Recep Erdogan vowed on Sunday to fight all terrorist groups including the Islamic State (IS), the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) with its Syrian offshoots and the Gulen organization that carried out a recent failed coup.
Turkish airstrikes and artillery attacks in Syria have killed at least 35 civilians and wounded dozens more on the fifth day of Turkey’s cross-border campaign against Islamic State (Isis) and Kurdish forces, according to a monitoring group.
There was no immediate comment from US officials about the escalation of fighting between the two sides, both of which receive American military support, the WSJ said.
Syrian rebels opposed to Ankara’s incursion said Turkish forces had targeted forces allied to the YPG and no Kurdish forces were in the area.
Officials said one of the goals of this operation is to set up a “terror-free” zone – in effect a buffer zone – to ensure the safety of Turkish citizens living along the border.
Separately, the Turkish prime minister’s office said 10 villages around Jarabulus and three around Al-Rai, further to the west along the Turkish border, had been liberated by the FSA.
Turkish security sources said warplanes and artillery had hit Kurdish YPG militia sites near Manbij, a city south of Jarablus that was captured by Kurdish-aligned SDF this month in a US-backed operation. Both Turkey and the United States have ordered the YPG militia to withdraw to the east bank of the river.
Turkey first sent tanks across the border on Wednesday as part of a stated two-pronged operation against ISIL, also known as ISIS, and Kurdish-led forces.
The Jarablus Military Council said the airstrikes in Amarneh village marked an “unprecedented and unsafe escalation” after Turkish artillery shelling the day before.
“We will support all work to clean Syria and Iraq of Daesh”, Erdogan told the rally, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group.
Hurriyet said that the Turkish armed forces had been given an order to “strike immediately” should the YPG be seen to make any move towards Jarabulus.
The Syrian army said it was in complete control of the town, from which roughly 8,000 civilians were due to be evacuated.
Meanwhile, the UNs special envoy to Syria, Staffan De Mistura, urged the opposition to approve plans to deliver aid to rebel-held eastern Aleppo and government-controlled western Aleppo through a regime-held route north of the city during a 48-hour humanitarian pause.
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Elsewhere, the Syrian government said it now has full control of the Damascus suburb of Daraya, following the completion of a forced evacuation deal struck with the government that emptied the area of its remaining rebels and residents and ended a four-year siege and grueling bombing campaign. Reports said the helicopters belonged to the Syrian government.
