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Turkish forces and US-backed Syrian rebels have captured a key ISIS border crossing
Reuters
Syrian rebels, backed by Turkish and US forces, have captured the ISIS border city of Jarablus in northern Syria.
The capture of Jarablus serves as a major blow to ISIS, the group also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh, as the city functioned as a funnel for foreign fighters and supplies leading from Turkey into Syria, The Washington Post reports.
Turkey and the US hope that by removing the Islamic State from the border, they can deprive it of a smuggling route that long saw its ranks swollen with foreign fighters and its coffers boosted by illicit trade.
The capture of Jarablus came after Turkey vowed on Monday to "completely cleanse" ISIS from its border following a suicide bombing at a wedding in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday.
The bombing is thought to have been carried out by ISIS, though the group has not yet claimed responsibility. The bombing killed 54 people and was aimed at a Kurdish wedding, most likely in an attempt to further provoke hostilities between Turkey's Kurdish minority and the central government.
"Daesh should be completely cleansed from our borders and we are ready to do what it takes for that," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a news conference in Ankara.
Turkey followed through with its vow to expunge ISIS from its border by launching a large-scale offensive against the city of Jarablus on Wednesday. The BBC reports that the Turkish military destroyed 70 targets around Jarablus with artillery strikes and another 12 targets with airstrikes.
Following the strikes, Turkish tanks and special forces, also backed by US-led coalition airpower, moved into northern Syria and against Jarablus. The mission also involved the use of Turkish-backed regiments of the Free Syrian Army rebel group, which crossed over the border from Turkey to assault Jarablus.
The Washington Post reports, citing rebel forces and Turkish officials, that the combined force managed to reach the center of Jarablus while encountering little to no resistance from ISIS. It is believed that the militant group fled the city before the offensive was fully launched.
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As much as the mission was meant to strike at ISIS and deny the group from conducting further operations within Turkey, the drive against Jarablus was also meant to limit the aspirations of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.
"This morning at 4 a.m. (1 a.m. GMT) an operation started in northern Syria against terror groups which constantly threaten our country, like Daesh (Islamic State) and the PYD," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.
The sudden Turkish-backed seizure of Jarablus comes as the YPG seized the ISIS-held city of Manbij and prepared to turn its attention against Jarablus. Indeed, over the weekend the Syrian Democratic Forces — which are largely made up of the YPG — formed a Military Council aimed at retaking the border city.
Reuters
The YPG has emerged as one of the most powerful groups fighting against ISIS in Syria. The group has managed to seize and hold large portions of northern Syria, and the Kurds have made moves toward forming an autonomous Kurdish region in the north of the country in a similar move to that of Iraqi Kurdistan.
But the YPG has ties to the Kurdish PKK movement, which the US and the EU consider to be a terrorist organization and which has waged a deadly insurgency across eastern Turkey since in the 1980s. Despite a lull in attacks as the Turkish government and the Kurds worked on a peace process, violence between the PKK and the Turkish military has restarted, leading to clashes throughout Turkey's Kurdish east.
Turkey fears that the expansion of the YPG across Syria will only further embolden the PKK at home. For that reason, Turkey's push to take Jarablus has as much to do with limiting the YPG's territorial ambitions as it does with forcing ISIS from the border.
Kurdish fighters have captured large areas of territory since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, and Ankara has long declared the Euphrates river, which runs just east of Jarablus, a red line it does not want them to cross.
The Turkish military actions against Jarablus have been named "Euphrates Shield." It is Turkey's first military action since the failed coup in July.
Syria's foreign ministry condemned what it said was a breach of its sovereignty and accused Ankara of launching the incursion to replace the Islamic State with "other terrorist groups." Damascus has also called for an immediate end to the Turkish-backed incursion.
However, Turkish officials told the official Anadolu news agency, however, that the operation was "aimed at clearing the Turkish borders of terrorist groups, helping to enhance border security and supporting the territorial integrity of Syria," The Post notes.
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