© Revolutionary Forces of Syria Media Office / ReutersTurkish army tanks make their way towards the Syrian border town of Jarablus, Syria August 24, 2016.
On Wednesday, Ankara announced that Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, had begun a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to clear Jarabulus of militants from the Islamic State jihadist group (outlawed in Russia).
"Armed groups supported by Turkey have established control over the villages of Balaban, Amarna and Dabas, south of Jarabulus," the source said.
The source added that Syrian opposition fighters supported by Ankara were fighting in the vicinity of the Bir Qusa village, with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the number of casualties already surpassing 40 people.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to President Bashar Assad fighting a number of opposition factions and extremist groups. Turkey has been shelling Kurdish militias in northern Syria along the Turkish border for months. Ankara has claimed that the Syrian Kurds have links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish authorities.
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Until now Washington has been advising and assisting Kurdish forces to capture Manbij from ISIS and effectively expel Syrian forces from Hasakah, and has urged the Kurds to mount a campaign to take Raqqa from ISIS. After Manbij, Washington had its sights on assisting the Kurds take Jarablus, a vital target in both further isolating ISIS in Raqqa and allowing the Kurds to join the Afrin and Kobane enclaves, with little then to stop them self-declaring independence. Washington thus faced a dilemma: continue to back the Kurds on their way to Jarablus, or reining them in and ceding the town to its — for now — NATO ally Turkey. With Biden (and Barzani) in Ankara the day of the operation, they've made their choice. The US agreed to move the SDF back to the east of the Euphrates, and reports say they're already on their way.
Make no mistake about it though: the US is saying one thing, and doing quite another. It says it is with Turkey in its mission to contain the YPG to northeast Syria... all the while US Special Forces and military jets are physically assisting the YPG to advance towards (and link up with?) Kurdish forces all along the Syria-Turkey border to the Mediterranean.
Turkey intervenes in Syria with US support: The end for Kurdish autonomy or independence?
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