Turkish tanks cross into Syria to fight IS

Turkey's army and international coalition forces began an operation to drive Islamic State jihadists out of a key Syrian border town, a statement from the Turkish prime minister's office said.

Tensions had flared across the Syria-Turkey border the previous day, with Turkish forces pounding jihadists with artillery strikes following rocket fire from the Syrian town of Jarablus. "The Turkish Armed Forces and the International Coalition Air Forces have launched a military operation aimed at clearing the district of Jarablus of the province of Aleppo from the terrorist organisation Daesh," the prime minister's statement said, using an Arabic acronym for the IS group.

The state-run news agency Anadolu said the operation began at around 4:00 am local time. In an earlier interview with private NTV television, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Ankara saw Jarablus -which lies opposite the Turkish town of Karkamis - "as a national security matter". "What we have said, since the beginning, is that having Jarablus or any other city held by IS is unacceptable," he said. The launch of the operation comes the day US Vice President is due in Ankara to meet Turkey's leadership, with agreeing a unified strategy on Syria set to be a crucial issue. He is by far the highest-ranking Western official to visit Turkey since the coup attempt to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish F-16 jets dropped bombs on IS targets in Jarablus.