Turkish tanks enter Syria, aim to free IS-held town
After months of terror attacks and rockets being fired onto the Turkish border, Ankara has sent its forces into Syria; 'We have launched a ground operation and cannot remain quiet anymore. We will uproot ISIS and the Kurdish terrorists.'
Turkey's state-run news agency says Turkish tanks have crossed into Syria as part of a military operation to free a border town held by the Islamic State terror group.
In its report Wednesday, Anadolu Agency did not say how many tanks had entered Syria. It based its report on unnamed military sources.
Private NTV television said as many as 20 tanks had crossed into Syria. It said clashes were taking place at the border.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday afternoon that the objective of the operation was to put an end to the repeated attacks launched against Turkey and to extricate ISIS and the Kurdish PYD from the spheres of combat.
The effort comes as part of an operation led by a US-led coalition in northern Syria to wipe out ISIS militants along the Turkey-Syria border.
Turkish Interior Minister Efkan Ala said that the operation was intended to restore security to Turkey, which has suffered a wave of successive terror attacks, and that Ankara “cannot simply sit with its arms folded” in the face of escalating violence on the border. “It is Turkey’s legal right to act.”
Turkey had vowed on Monday to "completely cleanse" ISIS militants from its border region after a suicide bomber suspected of belonging to the group killed 54 people at a Kurdish wedding in southeastern city of Gaziantep.
