Turkey denies cease-fire deal with Kurdish rebels in Syria

Turkish officials have said Turkish-backed forces in recent days have struck westwards, in jihadist areas.

Meanwhile, observers say the USA has failed in its effort to focus Turkey and its attacks in Syria on Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and not US -backed Kurdish fighters.

Since then, FSA rebels have been seizing other towns around Jarablus.

On Saturday, the tanks crossed the border and entered the Syrian town of al-Rai to support the new offensive, a rebel spokesman and monitors said. In the last few months, al-Rai has repeatedly changed hands between rebels and IS.

Ahmed Othman, a commander in pro-Turkey militant group Sultan Murad, told AFP in Beirut that his group was now “working on two fronts in al-Rai, south and east, in order to advance towards the villages recently liberated from IS west of Jarablus”.

Kurtulmus also said Turkey would like to see “intention” from the United States that it is prepared to move forward with the extradition of USA -based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of masterminding an attempted coup in July.

Turkish forces have targeted IS inside Syria, but have also attacked Kurdish fighters in the same area.

HIMARS refers to a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. Dogan says rockets have killed 21 Kilis residents and wounded scores since January. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Wednesday that military “operations will continue until all terrorist elements have been neutralized, until all threats to our borders, our lands and our citizens are completely over”. Its tanks and warplanes are backing rebels who are fighting separately against both Islamic State and the Kurdish YPG militia.

Turkey, a key North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, regards the YPG as “terrorists”, while the United States considers the militia an effective force against ISIL in Syria.

There were no immediate reports of clashes Wednesday between Turkish forces and the US -supported Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units), the Associated Press reported, but Turkish jets carried out airstrikes near Jarablus and Turkish artillery fired on targets west of Jarablus.

Turkish troops and Turkey-backed rebels have been fighting Kurdish-led forces and IS since Turkey’s incursion into Syria on August 24.

Syrian Kurds battling Islamic State have heeded US calls to vacate an area of northern Syria under Turkish assault but reserve the right to operate anywhere in the country they choose, their political leader said Thursday. All terrorists are bad. The U.S. State Department has designated the PKK a terrorist organization.

The group also claimed to have carried out a suicide vehicle bombing against Turkish-backed rebels in the same area and to have killed “dozens” of Turkish soldiers and Turkish-backed rebels. Germany said it did not want to see a lasting Turkish presence in an already tangled conflict.

Now it is clear that Turkey’s move was a limited, two-prong approach: Push IS militants back from the border after their attacks in Turkey; and prevent Syrian Kurds from linking cantons under their control into a de facto Kurdish statelet.

An official from the Kobani town council, Anwar Musallim, told Reuters that Turkish forces used live ammunition as well as tear gas.

Yet the expansion of Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria has stoked concern in neighboring Turkey, which opposes Kurdish expansionism along its border.