Anti-Daesh offensive sees Turkish tanks roll into Syria

Syrian rebels said they seized full control Wednesday of a town in northern Syria on Turkey’s border held by Daesh, in a Turkish-backed operation.

“Jarabulus is completely liberated,” Ahmad Othman, commander of the Sultan Mourad rebel group, told AFP from the scene, while another rebel spokesman said Daesh men had fled toward Al-Bab, to the southwest.
The operation — dubbed “Euphrates Shield” — was launched at around 4 a.m. (0100 GMT) with Turkish artillery pounding dozens of Daesh targets around Jarabulus, Ankara said.
Turkish tanks rolled across the border and warplanes also entered the battle.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group with sources on the ground, said Daesh had put up “very little resistance” before being driven out of Jarabulus in the face of the Turkish firepower.
It was the first time since Daesh declared a “caliphate” straddling Syria and neighboring Iraq that the group gave up an area under its control within hours.
Jarabulus had a population of 30,000, half of them displaced from other parts of war-torn Syria, according to Fabrice Balanche, a French expert on the political geography of Syria.
Its population is mainly Arab but the town also had Turkmen and Kurdish minorities before its capture by terrorists in January 2014.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphasized the operation was also targeting Kurdish militia fighters strongly opposed by Ankara — but backed by the US as a key ally against Daesh — who had also been closing in on Jarabulus.
As well as tanks, the AFP photographer in the area of Karkamis opposite Jarabulus saw several smaller military vehicles believed to be carrying the pro-Ankara Syrian rebels.
US Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Washington had made clear that pro-Kurdish forces in Syria must not to cross west of the Euphrates River, a prospect alarming for Turkey.
“We have made it absolutely clear... that they must go back across the river,” Biden said at a news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. “They cannot, will not and under no circumstances (will) get American support if they do not keep that commitment. Period.”

Source: Arab News