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| President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey announces anti-ISIS Operation in Syria |
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| Turkish Tanks entered in to Syrian soil and started attacking ISIS |
VietPress USA (August 24th, 2016): “The Turkish Armed
Forces and the International Coalition Air Forces have launched a military
operation aimed at clearing the district of Jarablus of the province of Aleppo
from the terrorist organization Daesh," a statement from the Turkish Prime
minister's office said.
Today on August 24th,
2016 in early morning at about 4:00 am local time 1000GMT), Turkey's army and
international coalition forces started an operation to drive Islamic State
jihadists out of a key Syrian border town, Jarablus.
Turkish F-16 jets
dropped bombs on IS targets in at least 63 different locations with the
supports from American air-strikes. This is the first such assault since a
November crisis with Russia sparked by the downing of one of Moscow's warplanes
by the Turkish air force, the private NTV television reported.
The state-run news
agency Anadolu and Turkish television said a small contingent of Special Forces
travelled a few kilometers into Syria to secure the area before a possible
operation.
Broadcaster CNN-Turk
reported that Turkish artillery hit 63 targets in Syria
On August 22nd
2016, ISIS sent a boy bomber to kill 50 and injured at least other 100 persons
at a Wedding party in Turkey (http://www.vietpressusa.com/2016/08/isis-child-suicide-bomber-kills-50-at.html).
IS also fired many mortar rounds to the
Turkish border town of Karkamis on Tuesday. These disturbances caused Turkey’s
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to prompt the army destroy jihadist positions on
Syrian soil with artillery strikes and deploy a war on IS in Syria territory.
With the support from
the US Government, Turkish tanks entered northern Syria on Wednesday to help
Syrian rebels clear ISIS from a border town, Turkish state media reported -- a
move that follows recent attacks that the republic blames on terror groups.
By Wednesday evening,
the Ankara-backed Free Syrian Army had captured the town, Jarablus, which is
less than a kilometer from Turkey and the last major community ISIS had held on
the Syrian-Turkish border, Turkey's semiofficial Anadolu agency reported.
Turkey's incursion into
Syrian territory is part of a larger effort to battle not only ISIS, but also
Kurdish fighters in northern Syria that Ankara opposes, President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said.
A US defense official
told CNN the anti-ISIS coalition has conducted eight airstrikes in support of
the Jarablus operation. The strikes were conducted using unmanned and manned
aircraft, including A-10s and F-16s. The fight includes US-trained fighters
known as the Vetted Syrian Opposition and Turkish forces.
Strikes were conducted
against ISIS fighters and mortar positions, the official said.
The United States
believes the ISIS fighters in Jarablus number in the hundreds.
There are no US boots on
the ground in Jarablus, said the US official, adding, "We've been in
communication with the Turks about the operation."
The official said the
campaign is "very significant."
"This is a critical
location because of the foreign fighter flow" from Europe and elsewhere,
as well as helping stem the flow of fighters leaving Syria and Iraq.
Another senior US
official told CNN's Barbara Starr the US assessment is that Turkey's
cross-border action is largely about trying to stop Kurdish action. "The
Turks never cared about Jarablus until the Kurds wanted to get there," the
official said.
The operation -- dubbed
Euphrates Shield, according to Anadolu -- came two days after Turkish artillery
units started shelling ISIS positions in Jarablus. That followed a recent
mortar attack on residential areas in Karkamis, a town on the Turkish side of
the border.
Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country will "fully support" operations
against ISIS positions in Jarablus.
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