Now Turkey pounds IS targets
TURKEY yesterday launched a major offensive in Syria backed by US warplanes in a bid to drive Islamic State from a key border crossing.
It sent Special Forces units and up to 12 tanks across the frontier and hit IS positions with artillery and air raids.
Turkish sources said Operation Euphrates Shield, which began at 4am local time, hit 82 targets in Jarablus.
Turkish-based Syrian rebels claimed to have entered the border town, used by IS as a supply route for weapons and foreign fighters.
Plumes of white smoke could be seen rising from the area around Jarablus as the raids intensified.
US support for the offensive risks dragging Washington into Turkey’s private war with Kurdish rebels within its own borders. In Euphrates Shield Turkey is also attacking America’s ally in Syria, the Kurdish PYD fighters.
Their territorial gains have alarmed Ankara which fears the creation of a Kurdish state along its border. It also believes the PYD is linked to Kurdish militants who are fighting within Turkey.
Ankara wants to keep Kurdish fighters in Syria east of the River Euphrates which itself lies just east of Jarablus.
The offensive coincided with the arrival of US vice president Joe Biden – the most senior American to visit Turkey since last month’s failed coup against hard-line president Tayyip Erdogan. Mr Biden warned Kurdish forces in Syria they would lose US support if they advanced west of the Euphrates.
He said: “We have made it absolutely clear...that they must go back across the river.
“They cannot, will not and under no circumstances get American support if they do not keep that commitment. Period.”
The offensive was launched four days after a suicide bomber suspected of links to IS killed 54 people at a wedding in southeastern Turkey.
Turkey vowed to “completely cleanse” IS militants from its border region after the bombing.
Yesterday its foreign minister said: “We don’t need to fight against mosquitoes, our aim is to eradicate the swamp and remove threats against Turkey.”