Turks pour fire on ISIS-held town just inside Syria

A Turkish special security force member stands guard Tuesday at the mausoleum of Turkey founder Kemal Ataturk as Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, military commanders and ministers pay their respects.
A Turkish special security force member stands guard Tuesday at the mausoleum of Turkey founder Kemal Ataturk as Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, military commanders and ministers pay their respects.

ANKARA, Turkey -- Turkey's prime minister's office said the Turkish military and the U.S.-backed coalition forces early today launched an operation to clear a Syrian border town of Islamic State militants.

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A Turkish tank and armored vehicle move near the Syrian border Tuesday in advance of an operation by the Turkish military and U.S.-backed coalition forces to clear the Syrian border town of Jarablus of Islamic State militants. The assault began before dawn today after intense artillery barrages and airstrikes.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said the operation began with Turkish artillery launching intense fire on Jarablus, followed by Turkish warplanes bombing Islamic State targets.

It was unclear this morning whether any Turkish or Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces have crossed the border.

The news agency said the operation aims to clear Turkey's border of "terror organizations" and increase border security. It said the aim also is to "prioritize and support" Syria's territorial integrity.

The assault follows Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusolgu's pledge on Tuesday of "every kind" of support for operations against the Islamic State along a 62-mile stretch of Syrian frontier, putting the NATO member on track for a confrontation with U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria, who have been the most effective force against the Islamic State militant group and who are eyeing the same territory.

Cavusolgu said Turkey would support twin operations stretching from the Syrian town of Afrin in the northwest, which is already controlled by Kurdish forces, to Jarablus, in the central north, which is held by the Islamic State group.

"It is important that the terror organizations are cleansed from the region," Cavusolgu said in a joint news conference with his Hungarian counterpart, referring to the weekend suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding in southern Turkey that killed at least 54 people, many of them children. Turkish officials have blamed the Islamic State for the attack.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said some 500 Syrian rebels had been massed on the Turkish side of the border in preparation for an assault, including local fighters from Jarablus.

The city is a vital supply line and the last border point that directly connects the Islamic State with Turkey and the outside world, and separates Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria.

The town is 20 miles from the city of Manbij, which was liberated from the Islamic State by Kurdish-led forces earlier this month. Taking over Jarablus and the Islamic State-held town of al-Bab farther south would be a significant step toward linking up border areas under Kurdish control east and west of the Euphrates River.

The Ankara official said the Turkish shelling came after mortar rounds, believed to have been fired by the militants from Jarablus, landed on Turkish territory. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, did not provide further details.

Ankara is also concerned about the growing power of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, which it says are linked to Kurdish groups waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

A Kurdish-led group known as the Syria Democratic Forces earlier this month liberated Manbij, triggering concerns in Ankara that the group would seize the entire border strip with Turkey. The U.S. says it has embedded some 300 special forces with the Democratic Forces, the most effective U.S. proxy in Syria.

A rebel commander affiliated with the Democratic Forces was killed shortly after broadcasting a statement announcing the formation of the so-called Jarablus Military Council and vowing to protect civilians in Jarablus from Turkish "aggression."

Abdel-Sattar al-Jader was shot by unknown gunmen late Monday, an hour after he accused Turkey of mobilizing fighters and "terrorists" for Jarablus. Al-Jader had pledged to resist Turkish efforts to take control of the city and warned Ankara against further aggression. The Democratic Forces declared its full support for the council.

The Jarablus Military Council later blamed the killing of al-Jader on Turkish security agents. There was no immediate comment from Turkey. Haj Mansour said two suspects were in custody but declined to comment on their identities.

The Kurds' outsized role in the Syrian civil war is a source of concern for the Syrian government, as well. Fierce clashes erupted between the two sides over control of the northeastern province of Hasakeh last week, and Syrian warplanes bombed Kurdish positions for the first time, prompting the U.S. to scramble its jets to protect American troops in the area.

The government and the Kurds agreed on a cease-fire Tuesday, six days after the clashes began. The Kurdish Hawar News Agency said government forces agreed to withdraw from Hasakeh as part of the truce.

Syrian state media did not mention any withdrawals, saying only that the two sides had agreed to evacuate the injured and exchange detainees. Government and Kurdish forces have shared control of Hasakeh since the early years of the Syrian war.

Information for this article was contributed by Zeina Karam, Philip Issa and Albert Aji of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/24/2016

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