Turkey has ordered residents in the town of Karkamis to evacuate after it was hit by mortars from so-called Islamic State militants in Syria.
Karkamis lies just across the border from Jarablus, an IS-held town which Turkish-backed rebels are expected to try to capture in the coming days.
A rebel force is massed in the area and preparing the offensive.
Turkey blames IS for a bomb attack that killed dozens of people in the south of the country at the weekend.
It says the group must now be cleared from the border region, and has been bombarding targets across the border in northern Syria ahead of an expected ground attack.
Turkey has also shelled Syrian Kurdish forces nearby, apparently to deter them from taking Jarablus themselves.
The order to evacuate Karkamis came by loudspeaker, and minibuses were sent in to transport those without cars.
However, the BBC's Mark Lowen says the evacuation order is not necessarily a sign that a ground operation is imminent, but a response to the jihadists' shelling of Karkamis...
BBC
23/8/16
--
Related:
Karkamis lies just across the border from Jarablus, an IS-held town which Turkish-backed rebels are expected to try to capture in the coming days.
A rebel force is massed in the area and preparing the offensive.
Turkey blames IS for a bomb attack that killed dozens of people in the south of the country at the weekend.
It says the group must now be cleared from the border region, and has been bombarding targets across the border in northern Syria ahead of an expected ground attack.
Turkey has also shelled Syrian Kurdish forces nearby, apparently to deter them from taking Jarablus themselves.
The order to evacuate Karkamis came by loudspeaker, and minibuses were sent in to transport those without cars.
However, the BBC's Mark Lowen says the evacuation order is not necessarily a sign that a ground operation is imminent, but a response to the jihadists' shelling of Karkamis...
BBC
23/8/16
--
Related:
Turkish civilians evacuate Syria border town as military strikes Islamic State
Turkey Launches Artillery Barrage on Northern Syria : Daesh targets near Jarablus and Kurdish YPG forces north of Manbij.
Turkey Announces More Active Role in Syria Conflict : "Our cities were separated": Aleppo, Damascus will "one day be liberated"
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Syria Kurds win battle with government, Turkey mobilizes against them...
ReplyDeleteSyrian Kurdish forces took near complete control of Hasaka city on Tuesday as a ceasefire ended a week of fighting with the government, consolidating the Kurds' grip on Syria's northeast as Turkey increased its efforts to check their influence.
The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the U.S.-backed campaign against Islamic State, already controls swathes of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syria war in 2011.
Their growing sway has alarmed Turkey, which is fighting an insurgency among its own Kurdish minority.
Syrian rebels backed by Turkey said they were in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory on the Islamic State-held Syrian border town of Jarablus, aiming to preempt any YPG attempt to take it.
"We will give every kind of support to the Jarablus operation. This is important for our own security," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference.....http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds-idUSKCN10Y127?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29