ANKARA, Turkey – Another 300 Turkish commandos will participate in Turkey’s Euphrates Shield operation in Syria, a military source said on Friday.
A military source speaking to Turkey’s Anadolu news said that special forces from the country’s 11th Command Brigade – who are known as the Blue Berets – have been airlifted from Turkey’s western Denizli province to the Syrian border.
The development comes a day after the Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told a press conference at the Presidential Complex in Ankara that the operation has succeed in clearing “1,800 square kilometers from Jarablus to Azaz, and south to Azaz, and up to the al-Bab region.”
As part of this operation Turkey is backing between 1,500-3,000 Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel factions against both ISIS militants and Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces with approximately 300-600 Turkish soldiers along with artillery, armor and air support.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said that Ankara aims to capture al-Bab from ISIS and then move westward to capture the city of Manbij from the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – who successfully captured the city with US support from ISIS in mid-August, shortly before Operation Euphrates Shield was launched.
A military source speaking to Turkey’s Anadolu news said that special forces from the country’s 11th Command Brigade – who are known as the Blue Berets – have been airlifted from Turkey’s western Denizli province to the Syrian border.
The development comes a day after the Turkish Presidential Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told a press conference at the Presidential Complex in Ankara that the operation has succeed in clearing “1,800 square kilometers from Jarablus to Azaz, and south to Azaz, and up to the al-Bab region.”
As part of this operation Turkey is backing between 1,500-3,000 Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel factions against both ISIS militants and Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces with approximately 300-600 Turkish soldiers along with artillery, armor and air support.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said that Ankara aims to capture al-Bab from ISIS and then move westward to capture the city of Manbij from the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – who successfully captured the city with US support from ISIS in mid-August, shortly before Operation Euphrates Shield was launched.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment