PHOTO: A Turkish-rebel column moves towards the town of Jarablus in northern Syria on Wednesday
UPDATE 2030 GMT: The US has again ruled out “safe zones” in northern Syria, despite the raising of the prospect by the advance of Turkish-supported rebels.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said:
That is still off the table because of the implied military commitment that it would require in order to effectively enforce it.
The concern is that while it sounds simple to maintain that kind of area, ultimately you’re responsible for protecting the borders of that safe zone and then policing that safe zone once it’s been created. That would be work-intensive to say the least. It would be dangerous.
Earnest emphasized that the zones “would likely require a greater U.S. military commitment…[which] would come at the expense of our ongoing efforts to focus on degrading, ultimately destroying, ISIL [the Islamic State]”.
UPDATE 1330 GMT: Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has used comments on a deadly bombing of police to reassert that Ankara’s military intervention in Syria will continue until both the Islamic State and the Syrian Kurdish movement PYD/YPG are removed from the north-central area near the border.
Yildirim spoke after 11 police were killed and 78 people, almost all police officers, were wounded in a truck bombing — blamed on the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK, allied with the PYD/YPG — in southeastern Turkey:
From the beginning we have been defending Turkey’s territorial integrity. We are also defending Syria’s territorial integrity. The aim of these terrorist organization is…to form a state in these countries….They will never succeed.
We will continue our operations until we fully guarantee security of life and property for our citizens and the security of our border. We will continue until Daesh [Islamic State] and other terrorist elements are taken out.
See Turkey Feature: 11 Police Killed, 78 Wounded in Bombing
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Turkish-supported rebels and Kurdish militia are clashing across northern Syria, less than 48 hours after Ankara’s intervention helped rebels take the ISIS-controlled border city of Jarablus.
See Syria Daily, August 25: Turkey Changes the Dynamics of the Conflict
Rebels fought with the Kurdish YPG militia in the village of Amarinah, about 3 km (2 miles) south of Jarablus. Turkish artillery shelled the YPG-held Mennagh Airbase in Aleppo Province, while in northwest Syria, the YPG attacked from the Kurdish Afrin canton, only to pull back amid Turkish artillery fire. Pro-opposition activists said an attempt to cut the corridor between Azaz and Marea in northern Aleppo Province was repulsed.
Turkish media confirmed that the military shelled a YPG unit south of Jarablus about 6 p.m. local time, claiming that they were advancing despite a promise by the US that the militia would retreat.
The fighting overtook claims on Thursday — by both American and Turkish officials — that the Kurdish militia had withdrawn to the east of the Euphrates River, Turkey’s “red line” for Kurdish territorial control.
A “Turkish senior official” said, after a phone call between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, “Kerry emphasized that the PYD/YPG forces have been withdrawing to the east of the Euphrates.”
In another signal that Kurdish forces would not pull back, the Manbij Military Council — set up by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and the YPG — said its fighters captured two villages south of Manbij, the ISIS-held city taken by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces earlier this month.
Manbij is about 40 km (25 miles) south of Jarablus.
The Shahba Council in northern Aleppo, set up by the SDF, said on Thursday that the “town of Jarabulus will become a ‘grave for the criminal occupier Erdogan and his mercenaries”.
