Turkey says conducts anti-IS operation in northern Syria

Turkey has launched "Euphrates Shield" operation against the Islamic State (IS) in northern Syria early Wednesday with U.S.-led coalition forces, the prime minister's office said in a statement.   The operation started at 4 a.m. local time (0100 GMT). Nearly 20 Turkish tanks and special forces crossed the Syrian border with rocket launchers striking IS targets in Jarablus, a northern border town of Syria.   Meanwhile, the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the Turkish intervention as a breach of sovereignty, Syrian state TV reported.   Turkish media reports said 70 IS targets have been destroyed and at least 46 IS militants killed in the operation, which involved artillery and rocket fire and airstrikes by Turkish and coalition aircraft.   IS militants fired mortar shells across the border from Jarablus, but no casualties were reported as the projectiles landed onto an empty field in central Karkamis, a town in southeastern Turkey.   According to CNN Turk, Turkey aims to clear the IS from a stretch some 70 km long and 40 km in width on the border.   "Attacks coming from Syria must come to an end," said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.   On Aug. 22, multiple mortar shells, fired from IS positions, hit Karkamis and Kilis, another border town in southern Turkey, though no casualties were reported.   Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also declared on the same day that the operation aims to sweep IS from Turkey's borders, adding that Free Syrian Army troops have also crossed the border to Jarablus.   Four villages, namely Elvaniye, Guguncuk, Keklice and Kivircik, have been captured from the IS in the operation, which involved 1,500 soldiers, local broadcaster NTV reported.   As Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels moved toward central Jarablus, Turkish F-16s also entered Syrian airspace for the first time since the downing of a Russian jet last November.   Ankara also aims to prevent further gains by Kurdish militia fighters in northern Syria, the Turkish president said.   The Syrian Kurds' gains in northern Syria have alarmed Ankara, which views the the Democratic Union Party (PYD) as an extension of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).   Erdogan said both the IS and the PYD threatened Turkey from northern Syria, adding neither of the groups nor their supporters stood a chance against the unity and solidarity of Turkey.   Saleh Muslim, leader of the PYD, tweeted on Wednesday that Turkey was entering a "quagmire" in Syria. Source: XINHUA