Turkey will never allow ‘artificial state’ in northern Syria, PM says

Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels expelled the Islamic State from the last strip of territory it controlled along the Syrian-Turkish border Sunday, effectively sealing the extremists’ self-styled caliphate off from the outside world, Turkey’s prime minister said.

The rebels, mainly Syrian Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army, took charge of the frontier between Azaz and Jarablus after clearing out the Sunni hardline group, state-run Anadolu Agency said.

Turkey will never allow the formation of an “artificial state” in northern Syria, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Sunday, referring to the US -backed Kurdish fighters whose advance Ankara is now aiming to stop.

The developments would be a major setback for ISIS, choking off supply lines for the terror group.

The loss of the Turkish border will also deprive IS of a key transit point for recruits and supplies, though the group continues to hold territory in both Syria and Iraq.

Some 10 days ago, Turkey mounted its first full-scale incursion into Syrian territory since the conflict began in 2011, aimed at IS and at US -backed Kurdish forces in the area, which have also been battling the extremists.

The operation, dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, was also aimed at stopping the advance of US-backed Kurdish forces, which are also battling the extremist group.

Turkey has sent more tanks into the northern Syrian village of al-Rai from Kilis province to support Syrian rebels fight Islamic State, Turkish media reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants to fully recapture divided Aleppo, Syria’s largest city before the war.

It would oblige Russian Federation to prevent warplanes from bombing areas held by mainstream opposition, require the withdrawal of Damascus’s forces from a supply route north of Aleppo, and focus on delivery of humanitarian aid unhindered by warring sides to the city’s population, said the letter, dated September 3. The Anadolu news agency reported Sunday that T.

Turkish and Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces are potentially hours away from completely cutting off the Islamic State’s access to the Turkish border, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Rai, near the Turkish border.

Monitors said the presence of so-called Islamic State (IS) on the border had been ended.

“We will never allow the formation of an artificial state in the north of Syria”, he told a crowd in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

In a press statement late Saturday, Turkey’s military said the FSA took control of 10 villages from IS, adding that the Turkish army struck 20 IS targets.

In early August, rebel forces including Al-Qaeda’s former Syrian affiliate battled regime forces south of the city to open a new route to the east, through Ramussa district.

Instead, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov are set to meet again on Monday in Hangzhou, China, where G20 leaders are gathered. SANA said they discussed Syria’s war and ways of fighting terrorism.