Turkey begin cross-border operation to free Islamic State-held Syrian town

Smokes billow in Syria pictured from Karkamis, Turkey, on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.
Smokes billow in Syria pictured from Karkamis, Turkey, on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.

NKARA, Turkey — After a pre-dawn barrage of heavy artillery and airstrikes, Turkish tanks and special forces pushed into Syria on Wednesday in a U.S.-backed assault aiming to retake a border town from Islamic State militants and contain Kurdish expansion. It marked the NATO member's most significant military involvement so far in the Syria conflict.

The Turkish and Syrian governments said the cross-border incursion on the town on Jarablus was backed by U.S. airstrikes. Hundreds of Syrian opposition fighters also joined the assault. Just hours after the operation began, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden landed in Ankara.

The U.S. has long pushed for more aggressive action by Turkey against the Islamic State group. But Turkey's move to thwart Kurdish ambitions puts it on a path toward potential confrontation with Kurdish fighters in Syria who are also supported by the United States and have been the most effective force battling the Islamic State in northern Syria.

Turkey has been deeply concerned by the advances of the main U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, which after months of taking territory from the Islamic State is poised to control nearly the entire Syrian side of the border with Turkey. The YPG is also linked to Kurdish rebels waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

Speaking in Ankara, Biden backed Turkey's demand for limits on Kurdish expansion. Kurdish forces "must move back across the Euphrates River. They cannot, will not, under any circumstance get American support if they do not keep that commitment," he said.

Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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