YOUNG
OBSERVER: Turkey sent a new wave of tanks into Syria Thursday, carrying
out a second day of operations. The offensive is complicated by
competing interests among the allies involved and the fighters they
support. Above, a boy looking on in Karkamis, Turkey, near the border.
A
fresh wave of Turkish tanks rolled into northern Syria on Thursday as
the military pressed its fight to drive Islamic State from the border
and deter advances by U.S.backed Kurdish forces.
Fears
of a confrontation between Turkish-backed Syrian fighters and the Kurds
appeared to subside as the Kurdish forces pulled out of Manbij, a
strategic Syrian town on the western side of the Euphrates River,
according to U.S. and Kurdish officials.
The
withdrawal could help defuse regional tensions as Turkey carries out a
second day of military operations inside Syria, an offensive complicated
by competing interests among the allies and the rival groups of
fighters they support.
The Kurdish forces,
known as the YPG, are seen as America’s most effective force against
Islamic State. But Turkish leaders see the group as an extension of an
outlawed Kurdish militant group in Turkey and are pushing to limit its
territorial gains in Syria.
The U. S. has
been putting pressure on the Kurds to pull back from territory that they
have taken from Islamic State, as they have previously promised to do.
In a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, U. S. Secretary of
State John Kerry said the YPG was moving back to its strongholds on the
eastern side of the Euphrates.
Turkish
soldiers and U. S. warplanes kicked off the new offensive on Wednesday,
joining forces with the Syrian rebels to quickly push Islamic State out
of Jarablus, the Syrian border town the extremist group long used as a
vital supply route.
Fighting was continuing between the Turkish- backed forces and militants in villages around Jarablus on Thursday.
After
the swift victory in Jarablus, Turkey said it would remain in Syria
until the Kurdish forces in Manbij, 25 miles to the south, followed
through on the pledge to pull back.
But it
has also said it would stay until it was certain that Islamic State
poses no imminent threat to Turkey—a signal of open-ended support to the
military to remain in northern Syria.
The
YPG secured Manbij in fighting earlier this month, and began pushing
farther north toward the Turkish border, a move that alarmed American
and Turkish officials.
During a one- day
visit to Ankara on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden delivered an
unusual public warning that the Kurdish fighters would lose U.S. support
if they didn’t pull back.
In a statement
on Thursday, the YPG said its fighters “successfully completed their
mission to liberate Manbij and have returned to their bases.”
The
operation creates an opening for Turkey to fulfill a long-held desire
to carve out a buffer zone in northwest Syria that could become a
sanctuary for Syrians fleeing the fighting—and a staging ground for its
rebel allies.
It would also allow Turkey
to retain a geographic wedge between two Kurdish- controlled regions of
northern Syria that the YPG would like to connect. That would create a
unified Kurdish area on Turkey’s border that Ankara sees as an
unacceptable security threat.
Security for
the town of Manbij, Kurdish and U.S. officials said, remained in the
hands of a group of U. S.backed Syrian militants who are working in a
coalition with the Kurds, aided directly by U.S. military advisers.
Turkish
and U. S. officials, along with Syrians familiar with the developing
plans, said the Turkish- backed Syrian rebel fighters in Jarablus could
soon turn their sights on Manbij.
“The
battle will not stop here, it’s not about Jarablus or the west bank of
Euphrates,” said one Syrian activist with links to the militias that
took the town. “Today, the first two objectives are done: getting the
YPG to the eastern side of the river and securing a stronghold by
liberating Jarablus.”
The activist said more fighters are prepared to join the fight.
“There are other brigades inside Syria waiting to join the second phase of the operation,” he said.
“There will also be a third phase,” the Syrian activist said, which could mean a move on Manbij.
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