Turkish tanks roll into Syria, pushing Islamic State out of key border town
KARKAMIS, Turkey/ANKARA, (Reuters) - Syrian rebels backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes entered one of Islamic State’s last strongholds on the Turkish-Syrian border yesterday, in Turkey’s first major U.S.backed incursion into its southern neighbour.
A column of at least nine Turkish tanks crossed into Syria with the group of largely Arab and Turkmen rebels to drive Islamic State out of Jarablus and surrounding villages. A Reuters reporter at the border witnessed intense bombardments, with palls of black smoke rising around the town.
President Tayyip Erdogan said the operation was targeting both Islamic State and the Kurdish YPG militia, whose gains in northern Syria have alarmed Turkey. Ankara views the YPG as an extension of Kurdish militants fighting an insurgency on its own soil, putting it at odds with Washington, which sees the group as an ally in the fight against Islamic State.
“Whether it’s Daesh (Islamic State) or the YPG, they are all terrorist organisations,” Erdogan told a joint briefing in Ankara after meeting U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. “A terrorist organisation fighting another terrorist organisation doesn’t make it innocent,” he said, adding that Islamic State had been forced out of Jarablus and that the town was now under control of the Syrian rebels.
Biden, who flew into Turkey, a key NATO ally with the alliance’s second biggest armed forces, on a pre-planned trip hours after the operation began, tried to soothe Turkish concerns about Kurdish territorial gains in Syria.
“No (Kurdish) corridor. Period. No separate entity on the Turkish border. A united Syria,” he told an earlier news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
Biden said Washington had made clear to Kurdish militia fighters that they should return east of the Euphrates river again - a red line for Turkey - after helping to capture the city of Manbij south of Jarablus from Islamic State this month.
“They cannot, will not, and under no circumstances get American support if
they do not keep that commitment,” he said. The offensive, dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, is Turkey’s first major military operation since a failed July 15 coup shook confidence in its ability to step up the fight against Islamic State. It came four days after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
A U.S. defence official said both A-10 “Warthog” ground attack aircraft and F-16 fighter jets were carrying out strikes in support of the operation. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in an interview on news channel HaberTurk that the operation would continue until Syrian Kurdish YPG militia fighters return east of the Euphrates river.
Syria’s foreign ministry condemned what it said was a breach of its sovereignty and accused Ankara of launching the incursion to replace Islamic State with “other terrorist groups”. Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said it was deeply worried by the escalation of tension after Turkey’s move.
A rebel commander with the Failaq al Sham group, who requested anonymity, told Reuters that most of the Islamic State insurgents in Jarablus had withdrawn, some of them surrendering. A second rebel commander estimated up to 50 percent of the town was now under control of the Turkish-backed rebels.
“Daesh fighters have withdrawn from several villages on the outskirts of Jarablus and are heading south towards the city of al Bab,” the Failaq al Sham commander said.
Many of the rebels were from Jarablus itself and were jubilant over what they saw as a long overdue intervention. Amateur video footage from one rebel source seen by Reuters showed little sign of heavy fighting in the town centre, suggesting Islamic State had pulled out with little resistance. Reuters could not independently authenticate the video. Biden’s visit comes at a testing time for Turkish-U.S. relations. Erdogan wants the United States to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania for 17 years and whose religious movement he blames for staging last month’s failed coup. Washington says it needs clear evidence of Gulen’s involvement and that it is a matter for the courts, a position that has sparked an outpouring of antiAmericanism from Turkey’s pro-government media. Gulen denies any role in the coup attempt.