Turkish military returns fire in Syria after shells hit border town

The SDF forces have recently established a military council for the ISIS-held city of Jarabulus in northern Syria and advanced around 10 kilometers from Jarabulus city on the border with Turkey.

Two mortar rounds hit the southeastern Turkish town of Karkamis, close to the border and facing the Syrian town of Jarablus, which is held by IS, the CNN-Turk channel reported.

The cross-border artillery attacks follow a suicide bombing at a wedding in the Turkish city of Gaziantep that killed 54 people, a lot of them ethnic Kurdish children.

Turkey’s military says it retaliated by firing on four IS positions in Jarablus with around 60 shells at 6:30 a.m. local time (0330 UTC) after shelling IS as well as rival Kurdish militia targets in northern Syria on Monday evening. Tanks were being positioned to secure the border, they said. Counter-terrorism police launched dawn raids targeting Islamic State members across Istanbul on Wednesday, the Dogan news agency said.

Ankara is also concerned about the growing power of US -backed Syrian Kurdish forces, who it says are linked to Kurdish groups waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Ankara sees them as tied to the Kurdish militants fighting an insurgency in Turkey.

Karkamis neighbours the Syrian town of Jarablus, which Turkish-backed Syrian rebels are preparing to attack and seize from Islamic State, according to a senior rebel official, a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand there.

The pro-Turkish government newspaper Daily Sabah claimed that Turkey hit both ISIS and “PYD targets” -in reference to Kurdish forces- in northern Manbij.

Turkey says the YPG is linked to its own Kurdish insurgents, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who have been blamed for a string of deadly attacks in the country since a ceasefire crumbled previous year.

Foreign Minister Mevlet Cavusolgu pledged “every kind” of support for operations against IS along a 100-kilometer (62-mile) stretch of Syrian frontier, putting the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member on track for a confrontation with US -backed Kurdish fighters in Syria, who have been the most effective force against IS and who are eyeing the same territory.

Operations of Turkish Armed Forces, which has been actively fighting Daesh, have significantly contributed to ongoing efforts of US -backed worldwide coalition against the terror group.

Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the “Turkish shelling in Syria aimed to prevent the advance of troops backed by Kurds from Manbij towards Jarabulus”.

Turkey is still in shock after the failed July coup by rogue solders who tried to overthrow President Tayyip Erdogan and the government, killing 240 people and triggering a huge purge of suspected coup supporters in the army and civil service.

More victims of the blast are being identified and our correspondent says the wave of bombings in Turkey could intensify as the country becomes ever more embroiled in the Syrian war.

Those growing ties between Ankara and Moscow are worrying Turkey’s Western allies.

However Yildirim on Monday said Turkey still had no clue who carried out the attack and said all “rumours” over the age and affiliation of the bomber should be taken with a pinch of salt.