Turkey strikes IS as Syria border tensions flare up

TURKEY yesterday pounded Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Syria with new artillery strikes as expectations grew of a major Ankarabacked offensive against the jihadists 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 yesterday, two mortar rounds fired from an IScontrolled area in Syria, hit the southeastern Turkish town of Karkamis.

Turkish artillery responded by hitting four IS positions around the jihadist-controlled Syrian town of Jarablus with around 60 shells.

The shelling came after as activists said hundreds of Ankarabacked rebels were preparing an offensive against the IS group to seize control of Jarablus.

But this could potentially put them on a collision course with the militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Ankara vehemently opposes and also has its eyes on Jarablus after seizing the strategic Manbij area in northern Syria from IS.

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

A well-connected columnist for the Hurriyet daily, Abdulkadir Selvi said the Turkey-backed offensive could begin at any moment.

The plan has not been confirmed by the Turkish authorities, but Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Monday that the border area had to be totally cleansed of jihadists.

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 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as the key to ending the ongoing conflict, putting Turkey at odds with his main supporters Iran and Russia.

However, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim at the weekend for the first time acknowledged that Assad was one of the “actors” in Syria and may need to stay on as part of a transition.

On Monday, he urged world powers including Iran, Russia and the United States to join together to rapidly open a new page in the Syria crisis.

“It is essential that all the parties come together to stop the bloodshed in Syria,” said Yildirim, whose naming as prime minister earlier this year was seen as heralding a less confrontational Turkish foreign policy.

But he also warned it was unacceptable for Kurds to seek to establish any kind of separate entity in northern Syria.

Turkey regards PYD as a terror group, although Washington, Ankara’s ally in the fight against IS, sees its militias – the powerful Kurdish People’s Protection Units – as having an important role in the fight.

US Vice-President Joe Biden is due to visit Ankara today for talks with Turkey’s leadership, and Syria is set to be a crucial issue.