In a separate report on the situation, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said civilians fleeing the Isis advance had been prevented by Syrian Kurdish authorities from entering areas under their control in response to rebel shelling of a Kurdish-held area of Aleppo.
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Turkey’s state-run news agency meanwhile said coalition airstrikes and Turkish artillery fire killed 14 ISIS militants near the Turkish border.
Thousands of Syrian civilians fled in the direction of Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria ahead of the approaching Islamic State forces, while at least 29 civilians have been killed in the offensive thus far.
A USA official said Turkey supported the operation, but another clarified it was not expected to directly participate militarily.
Kilis has been hit by rockets from Islamic State-controlled territory more than 70 times since January, killing 21 people including children, in what security officials say has gone from accidental spillover to deliberate targeting.
At least 61 rebel fighters have been killed in the fighting, as well as 47 militants, nine of them suicide bombers, the Observatory said.
“The aim of those who are using the PYD terrorist organization to surround Turkey’s southern borders is clearly to cut Turkey’s ties with the Middle East and North Africa”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday at a ceremony marking the 1453 conquest of Constantinople, today’s Istanbul.
The operation will also count on support from U.S.-led coalition air strikes as well as from ground-based firing positions across the border in Turkey.
A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town. Sputnik reported that Turkish soldiers set up a checkpoint at the entrance of the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria.
The Pentagon has deployed more than 200 special forces troops alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led alliance in which it has been trying to boost the Arab element.
The U.S. military official said depriving Islamic State of the Manbij pocket would help isolate the militants and further undermine their ability to funnel supplies to Raqqa.
The SDF last week began attacks against Islamic State in areas north of its de facto capital of Raqqa, but says the city was not a target of that operation.
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Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) has launched its biggest offensive in Syria’s Aleppo province in two years and gained territory from rebel forces near the Turkish border.
