Turkish tanks cross into Syria in ‘new phase’ against IS

By nightfall, Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish forces seized seven villages from IS, according to local journalist Ahmad al-Khatib. The new incursion is unfolding about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Jarablus, where Turkish forces first crossed into Syria 10 days ago.

The private Dogan news agency reported at least 20 tanks and five armored personnel carriers crossed at the Turkish border town of Elbeyli, across from the Syrian town of al-Rai.

The Pentagon has denied reports it was monitoring a cease-fire but said Turkish forces had moved to the west, while Kurdish forces had moved east of the Euphrates River, as per the insistence of Turkish and US authorities.

Rebels and Turkish forces are now advancing in two directions, to the east from al-Rai and to the west from Jarablus, to seal the border.

The gap is the last remaining stretch of the Syrian border under IS control. The group has suffered a string of defeats in recent months in both Syria and Iraq.

“The operations are to work from al-Rai towards the villages that were liberated west of Jarablus”, Colonel Ahmed Osman of the Sultan Murad rebel group told Reuters, adding the offensive was backed by Turkey.

In comments made to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Turkey’s European Union affairs Minister Omer Celik said that “Turkey is a sovereign state. a legitimate state” and that “to suggest it is on a par with a terrorist organization and suggest there are talks between them, that a deal has been reached between them, this is unacceptable”. Dogan says rockets have killed 21 Kilis residents and wounded scores since January.

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.

Turkey had previously warned that it would continue bombarding the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara sees as a terror organisation linked to separatist rebels, unless they moved east.

Turkey considers the YPG to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – a group striving for an independent Kurdish state in Turkey – which Ankara has declared a terrorist organisation.

Turkey on August 31 denied it agreed to a US -brokered truce with Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, saying it would not compromise with what it labels a “terrorist” group.

The Turkey-Kurdish fight is yet another complication in the tangled civil war that is ravaging Syria as both Turkey and the USA seek to retake territory from ISIL by supporting different proxy groups.