Turkey’s president says Kurds have not withdrawn as US says

“Turkish forces will confront them if they are fighting under the banner of terrorist groups, regardless of whether they are members of allied countries”.

In the last few days the rebels have been moving quickly to clear the jihadists from the last stretch of the border under their control, backed by Turkish artillery and Turkish and coalition air strikes.

The U.S. has called on both sides to stop fighting each other and focus on defeating the Islamic State group, hoping to halt days of clashes between a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally and a Kurdish force that has proven to be highly effective against the Islamic State. Can they really trust the United States? Vice President Biden was recently in Turkey and he was quite emphatic that the Syrian Kurds could not move any further to the West from where they were.

I met some of the Kurdish fighters in May at a secret USA training camp in northern Syria.

On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said military operations in Syria “will continue until all terrorist elements have been neutralized, until all threats to our borders, our lands and our citizens are completely over”. It gave no details on the targets, but the villages were in an area still held by Islamic State.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that one child had been killed and more than 30 people injured.

Bread and drinkable water are in short supply in the once-thriving trading town and there is little sign of commercial life.

A week on, there is little sign of the Turkish military presence. US military officials say they have consistently been the strongest force against the Islamic State.

“You have two forces who are very eager, highly motivated, to capture al-Bab”.

Ankara says the Kurdish militia combatants in Syria have links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is prohibited in Turkey and fighting Turkish forces in the south-east of the country. “Turkey has been using ISIS for this objective, and when ISIS failed because of the struggle of Rojava people -Kurds, Christians and Arabs- Turkey was forced to do it by its own hand [in Jarabulus]”, he said.

Since then, rebels claim to have been seizing villages along the Turkish border.

“Everything is destroyed in Manbij now”, he said, blaming the ruin on Islamic State. Turkey’s military campaign in Syria saw a renewed push following a suicide attack on Gaziantep that killed 54 people.

However, now Turkey-backed opposition rebels are marching through Manbij to take it from the Kurds.

Ankara has been providing aid to tens of thousands of displaced civilians just inside Syria, effectively a step towards creating a de facto safe zone.

NTV television said Turkey was building a wall between Jarabulus and Karkamis on the Turkish side of the border.

Syria’s future is still vague in the long term.

Turkey has said Syria was informed in advance of the operation by Russian Federation.

Turkish security forces used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters along the border on Friday.

Othman said it was the first phase of their plans. They are fighting ISIS forces to maintain that grip.

Turkey is concerned that Syrian Kurdish fighters could embolden Kurdish militants waging an insurgency on its soil.

The PYD is the political wing of the YPG militia, which the United States is backing in the fight against Islamic State.