Turkey enters ‘newphase’ of fight against Islamic State
Terror group down to 13 miles of border as Turkish tanks advance.
ISTANBUL — Turkish tanks on Saturday crossed into Syria to the west of a frontier town seized from the Islamic State group late last month in a “new phase” of an operation aimed at sealing off the last stretch of border controlled by the extremists.
By nightfall, Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish forces seized seven villages from the Islamic State, also called ISIS, according to local journalist Ahmad al-Khatib.
The private Dogan News Agency reported at least 20 tanks and five armored personnel carriers crossed at the Turkish border town of Elbeyli, across from the Syrian rebel-held town of al-Rai. The new incursion is unfolding 34 miles west of Jarablus, where Turkish forces first crossed into Syria almost two weeks ago.
A spokesman for one of the Turkish-backed Syrian factions said 100 Turkish troops accompanied 30 tanks across the border, linking up with the rebels at al-Rai. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the Turkish troops.
Rebels and Turkish forces are now advancing in two directions, to the east from al-Rai and to the west from Jarablus, to seal the border. The rebels advancing from Jarablus say they captured three more villages fromthe extremists Saturday.
The Islamic State, which once controlled hundreds of miles of territory along the Turkish border and used it to bring in foreign fighters and supplies, now only rules a 13-mile stretch of the frontier. The group has suffered a string of defeats in recent months in both Syria and Iraq.
Some 5,000 U.S.- and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have crossed into northern Syria from Turkey to participate in the so-called Euphrates Shield operation, according to local journalist Adnan al-Hussein, who is embedded with the groups.
Meanwhile, three rockets fired from Islamic Stateheld territory in Syria struck the Turkish border townof Kilis, some 19 miles from Elbeyli, according to the Turkish governor’s office, which said one person was wounded. Dogan says rockets have killed 21 Kilis residents and wounded scores since January.
The Turkish military responded to the rockets Saturday with howitzers, striking two weapons depots and bunkers and “destroying the locations and the Daesh terrorists there,” the state-run Anadolu news agency said, referring to the Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.
Turkey’s military says its right to self-defense aswell as United Nations resolutions to combat the Islamic State justify its Syria incursions.
Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have also fought U.S.-backed Kurdish forces known as People’s Protection Units, or YPG, around Jarablus. Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Turkey and its allies consider a terrorist group.
The U.S. has provided extensive aid and airstrikes to the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which also include Arab fighters. The forces have proved to be highly effective against the Islamic State.