KARAKMIS, TURKEY // Turkey sent more tanks into Syria on Thursday and sternly warned a Kurdish militia to withdraw from front line positions, a day after pro-Ankara Syrian opposition fighters captured a key border town from extremists.
The tanks joined those which crossed the frontier on Wednesday in what Turkey has named Operation Euphrates Shield. In the most ambitious military action launched yet by Turkey in Syria's five-and-a-half-year war - and carried out in full coordination with Turkey's Nato ally, the United States - the operation aims to rid the northern Syrian border area of both ISIL militants and Kurdish militia.
Hundreds of Syrian rebel fighters, backed by Turkish tanks, war planes and special forces, have captured the town of Jarabulus, a small town on the west bank of the Eurphrates, in a mere 14 hours to end more than three years of ISIL control.
But Turkish defence minister Fikri Isik warned the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, who also had designs on Jarabulus, to move back east across the Euphrates or also face intervention from Turkey.
The new contingent of at least ten tanks roared across a dirt road west of the Turkish border town of Karkamis, throwing up a cloud of dust in their wake before crossing the border.
It was not immediately clear if the deployment of the new tanks on Thursday was aimed at securing Jarabulus or helping the rebels move into new territory.
The well-connected columnist of the Hurriyet daily newspaper, Abdulkadir Selvi, said the aims of Operation Euphrates Shield included creating a security zone free of "terror groups" and limiting the advances of Kurdish militia.
He said 450 members of the Turkish military had been on the ground on the first day of the offensive but this number could rise to 15,000.
Turkey has emphasised that the offensive was also aimed at the YPG, regarded by Ankara as a terrorist organisation dedicated to carving out an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria.
Ankara's hostility to the YPG puts it at loggerheads with the US, which collaborates with the group on the ground in the fight against ISIL.
But US vice president Joe Biden, visiting Turkey on Wednesday, made clear that Washington has ordered the YPG not to move west of the Euphrates after recent advances or risk losing American support.
Turkey's defence minister said there was so far no evidence of any withdrawal and Turkey reserved the right to strike the YPG if it failed to move.
"If this withdrawal doesn't happen, Turkey has every right to intervene," Mr Isik added. The withdrawal has been promised within a week but Mr Isik warned: "They have not yet withdrawn ... Turkey will be following, moment by moment."
A spokesman for the US-led coalition against ISIL said on Twitter that the "main element" of the Syrian Kurdish forces had already moved east although some remained for clean-up operations.
Ankara has in the past been accused of turning a blind eye to the rise of ISIL but hardened its line after a string of attacks - the latest being the suicide bomber attack on a Kurdish wedding in the city of Gaziantep that left 54 people dead, many of them children.
Continuing a European tour in Sweden, Mr Biden said "a gradual mindset change in Turkey" had led to the realisation that ISIL was "an existential threat" to the country.
"I think the Turks are prepared to stay in the effort to take out ISIL as long as it takes," he added.
The speed of the advance on Jarabulus was a stark contrast to the long, grinding battles needed for Kurdish forces to recapture northern Syrian towns such as Kobane and Manbij from ISIL. Television footage showed the Syrian fighters walking into an apparently deserted and abandoned Jarabulus unchallenged and newspapers published pictures showing that the rebels even had time to take selfies along the way.
The apparent efficiency of the operation also marked a major boost for the Turkish army whose reputation had been badly tarnished by the failed July 15 coup against president Redep Tayyip Erdogan staged by rogue elements in the armed forces.
America is making another attempt to persuade Russia to work with the US on resolving the Syrian situation. US secretary of state John Kerry is due to met his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Geneva on Friday. The UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said the meeting was "important" and could help his push to resume peace talks. Successive rounds of international negotiations have failed to end the conflict, which has killed more than 290,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes. Moscow and Washington support opposite sides in the conflict, but have a common foe in ISIL.
The two countries also co-chair a UN-backed humanitarian task force for Syria, which has been struggling to ensure access for desperately-needed aid.
As the civil war in Syria rages on, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 11 children were among 15 civilians killed on Thursday in a barrel bomb attack carried out by government forces on Bab Al-Nayrab, a rebel-held neighbourhood in the city of Aleppo. The Syrian regime has been accused of regularly using barrel bombs - crude, explosive devices - on rebel-held areas that are home to civilians, but have always denied it. Other parties to the conflict are not known to have used the weapons.
Eight civilians, including two children, were killed on Thursday in rebel fire on the government-held west of the city.
* Agence France Presse
http://ift.tt/2bKtBdH
3Novices Europe
No comments:
Post a Comment