Turkey strikes IS in Syria border

Major offensive expected after deadly suicide bombings

Turkey on Tuesday pounded Islamic State ( IS) jihadists in Syria with new artillery strikes as expectations grew of a major Ankara- backed offensive against the group after a deadly suicide bombing on its soil.

With tensions flaring on the Turkey- Syria border following the bombing in the nearby city of Gaziantep that left 54 people dead, Turkish howitzers on Monday hit jihadist and Kurdish rebel targets across the frontier

Turkey has been shaken by one of the bloodiest years in its modern history, with a string of attacks by IS jihadists and Kurdish militants and the botched July 15 coup.

In new fighting on Tuesday, two mortar rounds fired from an IS- controlled area in Syria hit the southeastern Turkish town of Karkamis while three more hit the center of the Turkish border town of Kilis, the state- run Anadolu news agency said.

There were no reports of injuries although 21 people in Kilis have been killed by fire from Syria in recent months.

Turkish artillery responded to the fire on Karkamis by hitting four IS positions around the jihadist- controlled Syrian. town of Jarabulus with around 60 shells.

The army also responded to the fire on Kilis.

The shelling came as activists said hundreds of Ankara- backed rebels were preparing an offensive against the IS group to seize control of Jarabulus.

But this could potentially put them on collision course with the militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party which Ankara vehemently opposes and who also have designs on Jarabulus after seizing the strategic Manbij area in northern Syria from IS.

Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the “Turkish shelling in Syria aimed to prevent the advance of troops backed by Kurds from Manbij toward Jarabulus.”

He said the commander of Kurdish- dominated forces headed to Jarabulus, Abdel Satar al- Jader, was also “assassinated” on Monday after an- nouncing he planned to resist the Turkish advance.

There was no confirmation of this from Turkish sources.

Abdulkadir Selvi, a wellconnected columnist for the Hurriyet daily, said the Turkeybacked offensive “could begin at any moment.”

The movements have come at a critical juncture for Turkey in Syria’s five- and- a- half- year war, with signs growing it is on the verge of a landmark policy shift.

Ankara has always called for the ouster of President Bashar al- Assad as the key to ending the conflict, putting Turkey at odds with his main supporters Iran and Russia.