Turkey says new tank unit has entered Syria

Turkey has sent more tanks into northern Syria, in an operation against the Islamic State (IS) group, Turkish media reports say.

Turkish tanks roll into Syria, opening new line of attack was posted in World of TheNews International – https://www.thenews.com.pk on September 04, 2016 and was last updated on September 04, 2016.

The town, which shares a border with the city of Azaz controlled by opposition forces, has frequently changed hands between the Free Syrian Army and Daesh.

“U.S. forces struck ISIL targets near Turkey’s border in Syria last night via newly deployed HIMARS system”, Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the coalition fighting ISIS, said on his Twitter account.

The Turkish military responded to the rockets on Saturday with howitzers, striking two weapons depots and bunkers, and “destroying the locations and the Daesh terrorists there”, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, referring to IS by an Arabic acronym.

In Cologne, Germany, meanwhile, as many as 30,000 people took part in a protest against the Turkish offensive in Syria, German news agency DPA reported, while calling for the PKK leader and one of its founders, Abdullah Ocalan, to be released from jail.

The Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army units have also been fighting US -backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units or the YPG.

Turkey disagrees with its ally’s support for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it considers a terrorist group.

The U.S. has provided extensive aid and airstrikes to the YPG-led Syria Democratic Forces, which have proven to be highly effective against IS.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would not allow the group to create a “terror corridor”.

Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party were blamed on Saturday for the deaths of 20 Turkish soldiers and a village guardsman after three separate clashes and an attack in a violent 48 hours in the country’s east and southeast.

The United States has voiced concerns about Turkish strikes on Kurdish-aligned groups that Washington has backed in its battle against Daesh.

Civilians were seen fleeing as the Turkish military advanced.

Othman said it was the first phase of their plans. It has used it in the past to bring in foreign fighters joining its forces. The Syria Democratic Forces, which also includes Arab fighters, has taking a large swath of territory from the extremists along the border with Turkey and closed in on Raqqa, the de facto capital of the extremist group’s self-styled caliphate.