Turkey strikes IS as Syria border tensions flare

Turkey vowed Tuesday to give full support to efforts to free a key Syrian border town from the control of Islamic State (IS) jihadists as anticipation grew of a major Ankara-backed offensive against the group.

Turkish forces also pounded jihadists in Syria with new artillery strikes after a deadly suicide bombing in the city of Gaziantep at the weekend and repeated rocket fire across the border.

Activists have said hundreds of Ankara-backed rebels were preparing an offensive against the IS group to seize control of the Syrian town of Jarabulus, which lies opposite the town of Karkamis in Turkey.

Without confirming the operation, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu pledged to give “all kinds of support” to push the jihadists out of Jarabulus.

“We do not want Daesh (IS) to exist in Iraq and Syria,” he told reporters.

In an interview with private NTV television, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said Turkey saw Jarabulus “as a national security matter”.

“What we have said, since the beginning, is that having Jarabulus or any other city held by IS is unacceptable,” he said.

The authorities also ordered residents to vacate Karkamis and the surrounding area for safety reasons after the rocket fire, although there was no indication this was linked to the impending operation.

“Residents of the town centre and six neighbourhoods (are) advised to relocate to more secure areas,” the local governor’s office said in a statement.

Nine mortar rounds fired from Jarabulus hit the centre of the town while two more hit another neighbourhood, it added.

No casualties or injuries reported.

Turkish artillery responded by shelling IS positions around Jarabulus.

– ‘May begin any time’ –

Abdulkadir Selvi, a well-connected columnist for the Hurriyet daily, said the Turkey-backed offensive “could begin at any moment”.

The move by Ankara-backed rebels could potentially put them on collision course with the militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) which Ankara vehemently opposes and which also has designs on Jarabulus after seizing the strategic Manbij area in northern Syria from IS.

Rami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the “Turkish shelling in Syria aimed to prevent the advance of troops backed by Kurds from Manbij towards Jarabulus”.

He told AFP the commander of Kurdish-dominated forces headed to Jarablus, Abdel Satar al-Jader, was also “assassinated” on Monday after announcing he planned to resist the Turkish advance. There was no confirmation from Turkish sources.

Turkey regards the PYD as a terror group, although Washington sees its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia — as the most effective fighting force against the jihadists.

US Vice President Joe Biden is due in Ankara Wednesday to meet Turkey’s leadership, with agreeing a unified strategy on Syria set to be a crucial issue.

The movements have come at a critical juncture for Turkey in Syria’s five-and-a-half-year war, with signs growing it is on the verge of a landmark policy shift.

Ankara has always called for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad as the key to ending the conflict, putting Turkey at odds with his main supporters Iran and Russia.

However Prime Minister Binali Yildirim at the weekend for the first time acknowledged that Assad was one of the “actors” in Syria and may need to stay on as part of a transition.

Kurtulmus also acknowledged that the Assad regime would have to be part of final peace talks with the opposition, saying: “If there is going to be a peace table, that table must have two sides.”

– ‘The last song’ –

Turkey has been shaken by one of the bloodiest years in its modern history, with a string of attacks by IS jihadists and Kurdish militants and the botched July 15 coup.

The attack in Gaziantep on a Kurdish wedding party for a young couple has horrified the country, with the majority of the 54 victims aged under 18 and including children as young as four.

But there is confusion as to who was behind the attack, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan initially saying the suicide bomber was a child aged 12-14 acting on the orders of IS.

However Yildirim on Monday said Turkey still had no clue who carried out the attack and said all “rumours” over the age and affiliation of the bomber should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Hurriyet said the authorities still suspected IS was behind the attack as the main line of inquiry, with investigators taking DNA samples in Gaziantep from the families of possible IS suspects.

One guest, Emine Ayhan, lost four of her five children in the blast.

“To finish off the evening the young guys wanted one last song. It was in the middle of this song that the bomb went off,” Hurriyet quoted her as saying.