Barrel bomb attack in Aleppo kills at least 15

The Turkish military support enabled the Syrian rebels of capturing Jarablus from the hands of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Any action against Kurdish forces in Syria puts Turkey at odds with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States.

The monitor also said at least four Kurdish fighters had been killed and 15 injured in the bombardments south of Jarabulus, the town taken from IS by Turkish-backed Arab rebels on the first day of Turkey’s incursion on Wednesday.

Turkey said one of its soldiers was killed on Saturday when a rocket that it said came from a YPG-controlled area hit a tank.

US-backed Kurdish forces have also been fighting IS in Syria but Turkey fiercely opposes any move by Kurds to expand into territory lost by the jihadists. Clashes were fiercest with the Kurdish-allied forces over the village of Amarneh, eight km (five miles) south of Jarablus. Rebels posted pictures from inside the village.

On Saturday, clashes erupted for the first time between Turkish forces backed by tanks, and pro-Kurdish fighters in the town of Al-Amarneh, also south of Jarabulus. “Because the YPG are east of the Euphrates, not in Manbij or Jarablus”, said Ibrahim Ibrahim, head of the Rojava Media Office. The FSA took control of the town in less than 24 hours with the help of Turkey’s potent and huge military – the second-largest in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation after the United States.

On Wednesday, Ankara announced that Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, had begun a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to clear Jarabulus of militants from the Islamic State jihadist group (outlawed in Russia).

There was no immediate comment from the YPG, but forces aligned to the Kurdish group had said on Saturday that no Kurdish militia were in areas being targeted by Turkish in the cross-border offensive.

Turkish airstrikes and artillery targeted the town of Bir Kousa in the countryside of the city of Jarablus in northern Syria, near the Turkish borders, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

ANHA, the news agency of the Kurdish semi-autonomous areas, said Beir Khoussa has “reportedly lost all its residents”.

“All must put the civilian population of Aleppo first and exert their influence now”, de Mistura said in a statement, urging an approval by Sunday. He said 50 Turkish tanks were taking part.

According to the reports, the Turkish soldier was killed after a rocket hit the tank in which he was traveling.

Late on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington had supported Kurdish fighters on a “limited basis” and that American officials remain in close coordination with Turkey. But both Ankara and Damascus share concerns over Kurdish ambitions for autonomy.

The dramatic escalation of Turkey’s involvement in the Syrian civil war last week aimed to help the Syrian rebels drive the Islamic State group out of the border town of Jarablus.

Also Sunday, government warplanes renewed their air campaign against the besieged neighborhood of al-Waer in the central city of Homs. The district’s hospital was bombed and made non-operational earlier this month.