More Turkish tanks roll into Syria

Rebels backed by new incursion seize 7 villages from ISIS

Turkish soldiers are stationed Saturday in Suruc, near the country’s border with Syria.
Turkish soldiers are stationed Saturday in Suruc, near the country’s border with Syria.

ISTANBUL -- Turkish tanks on Saturday crossed into Syria to the west of Jarablus, a frontier town recently seized from the Islamic State militant group, in a "new phase" of an operation aimed at sealing off the last stretch of border controlled by the extremists.

By nightfall, Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish forces seized seven villages from the Islamic State, according to local journalist Ahmad al-Khatib.

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 rebel-held town of al-Rai. The new incursion is unfolding about 34 miles west of Jarablus, where Turkish forces first crossed into Syria 10 days ago.

A spokesman for one Turkish-backed Syrian faction said that 100 Turkish troops accompanied 30 tanks across the border, linking up with the rebels at al-Rai. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the Turkish troops.

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 rebels advancing from Jarablus say they captured three more villages from the extremists Saturday.

The Islamic State, which once controlled hundreds of miles of territory along the Turkish border and used it to bring in foreign fighters and supplies, now only rules a 13-mile stretch of the frontier.

The group, also known by the acronym ISIS, has suffered a string of defeats in recent months in both Syria and Iraq.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Friday told Bloomberg News that Turkey is seeking to prevent a breakup of Syria on ethnic lines with its military operations in the country.

"Turkey has had this aim since the beginning," he said in a Friday interview in Istanbul.

That, he said, refers to "protecting the territorial integrity of Syria, preventing the dissolution of Syria, keeping all ethnic groups together, ending conflict and forming a government in which all Syrian people take part."

About 5,000 U.S. and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels have crossed into northern Syria from Turkey to participate in the so-called Euphrates Shield operation, according to local journalist Adnan al-Hussein, who is embedded with the groups.

Three rockets fired from Islamic State-held territory in Syria meanwhile struck the Turkish border town of Kilis, about 19 miles from Elbeyli, according to the Turkish governor's office, which said one person was lightly wounded.

Dogan says rockets have killed 21 Kilis residents and wounded scores since January.

The Turkish military responded to the rockets Saturday with howitzers, striking two weapons depots and bunkers and "destroying the locations and the Daesh terrorists there," the state-run Anadolu news agency said, referring to the Islamic State by an Arabic acronym.

Anadolu said Saturday that 11 soldiers were killed and 28 wounded in Turkey's east and southeast in clashes with Kurdish militants.

The casualties were the result of separate military operations in the southeastern province of Hakkari and eastern province of Van against members of the "separatist terror organization," Turkey's description of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkey and its allies consider a terrorist organization.

Anadolu reported that three soldiers were killed and 20 wounded with three in critical condition in Hakkari on Saturday morning. A Turkish Armed Forces statement said 33 Kurdish militants were killed and 30 wounded in the ongoing operations.

In a statement released Saturday, the governor's office of Van said eight soldiers were killed and eight wounded in Friday operations around Tendurek Mountain.

Turkey's military says its right to self-defense as well as U.N. resolutions to fight the Islamic State justify its Syria incursions.

Turkey and allied Syrian rebels have also fought U.S.-backed Kurdish forces known as the People's Protection Units around Jarablus.

Turkey views the People's Protection Units as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

The U.S. has provided extensive aid and airstrikes to the People's Protection Units-led Syria Democratic Forces, which have proven to be highly effective against the Islamic State.

The Syria Democratic Forces, which also includes Arab fighters, has taken a large swath of territory from the extremists along the border with Turkey and closed in on Raqqa, the de facto capital of the extremist group's self-styled caliphate.

Yildirim said criticisms of Turkey's clashes with Kurds in Syria "are without foundation." U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria are "PKK terrorists disguised as a different group," he said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party. He called it a "huge contradiction" that "some of our friends" have chosen to back one terrorist group to fight another in Syria.

In the meantime, the Turkish incursion is open-ended and will continue until terrorist threats from Syria are eliminated, Yildirim said.

The areas in which Turkey and the rebels it backed are operating have been cleared of nonarmed personnel, he said, amid claims that Kurdish civilians have been killed.

"The innocent Syrian people have already migrated to Turkey," he said. "There are no civilians living there anymore."

Information for this article was contributed by Zeynep Bilginsoy and Philip Issa of The Associated Press and by Benjamin Harvey, Simin Demokan, Taylan Bilgic and Ercan Ersoy of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 09/04/2016

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