Turkey sends more tanks into Syria as ceasefire efforts advance
KARKAMIS AFP (Saturday) Turkey on Saturday sent more tanks into Syria to bolster a military offensive against jihadists and Kurdish fighters, as a diplomatic push for a new ceasefire in Syria gathered pace.
An AFP photographer in the village of Karkamis on the Turkish side of the border saw six more tanks roll over the frontier as mop-up operations continued in a town wrested from the Islamic State group (IS).
Sporadic explosions were heard from over the border as Turkishbacked rebels carried out de-mining work in the town of Jarabulus seized from IS on Wednesday.
The state-run Anadolu news agency confirmed that the rebels were working to destroy explosives left behind by IS militants, with 20 different sets destroyed on Friday alone.
The deployment was the latest phase in Turkey's military operation inside Syria -- codenamed “Euphrates Shield” -- to oust IS from the border region and also counter advances by a Kurdish militia opposed by Ankara.
As Turkey stepped up its biggest operation in Syria since the start of the war, the US and Russia announced progress in talks on agreeing a new ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the evacuation of Daraya, a town crushed by a four-year Syrian army siege, continued, with hundreds of fighters and their families arriving in rebel-held territory in the northwest.
In Geneva on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said they had cleared key obstacles in ceasefire talks but had yet to reach a final deal.
“Today I can say that we achieved clarity on the path forward” for a revamped cessation of hostilities, Kerry said.
Lavrov concurred, saying that “very important steps” had been made on a deal to stop the violence.
Russia, a staunch ally of Assad's regime, has been backing government forces with air strikes on rebel-held areas.
The US supports Syria's main opposition alliance and some rebel factions.
There had been hope that Friday's talks might lead to a breakthrough on the battered northern city of Aleppo, where fighting between government and rebel forces has escalated in recent weeks, leaving hundreds dead.
But neither side gave pledges on getting much-needed aid into the city.
And Turkey's offensive in Syria added yet another layer of complexity to the tangled web of powers jockeying for influence in the war-torn country.
Turkey's leadership has made clear that its offensive is also aimed at holding back the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, which has led the fight against IS in the area.
Ankara says that the YPG has failed to stick to a promise made by its US allies that the militia would move back east across the Euphrates following the seizure of the town of Manbij from IS earlier this month.
Turkey sees the YPG militia and its Democratic Union Party (PYD) political wing, which have links to Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey, as “terror groups” bent on carving out an autonomous Kurdish region.
Turkey has continued sending in tanks since Wednesday's lighting operation to help rebels rout IS from Jarabulus.