US forces hit Islamic State targets overnight near Turkey’s border with Syria using a newly deployed mobile rocket system, a senior diplomat said on Saturday. Inside Syria, Turkish tanks opened a new line of attack.
“US forces struck [Isis] targets near Turkey’s border in Syria last night via newly deployed Himars system,” Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the coalition to counter Islamic State, said on his official Twitter account.
U.S. forces struck #ISIL targets near #Turkey's border in #Syria last night via newly deployed HIMARS system. https://t.co/qQeQ35aicp #ISIS
— Brett McGurk (@brett_mcgurk) September 3, 2016
Himars is an acronym for “High Mobility Artillery Rocket System”. It was not immediately clear when the system was deployed at Turkey’s border.
Turkey, a member of the US-led coalition against Isis, on Saturday sent tanks across the frontier from Kilis province, starting a western leg in an operation to sweep militants from its border.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels seized several villages from Isis, the insurgents and monitors said.
The Hamza brigade, a group fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), said it had taken control of Arab Ezza, a village near which Turkish warplanes carried out air strikes on Friday.
A source in the Failaq al-Sham rebel group said FSA factions had also captured the villages of Fursan, Lilawa, Kino and Najma just south of Arab Ezza. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group confirmed that the rebels had taken several villages.
Turkey last week launched its first major incursion into Syria since the civil war began five years ago. Its tanks and warplanes are backing rebels who are fighting separately against both Isis and the Kurdish YPG militia.
Ankara’s offensive has alarmed the west, with Washington saying action aimed at the YPG, part of a US-backed coalition also fighting against Islamic State, risks undermining the broader goal of ridding Syria of the jihadist group.
Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies began the 24 August offensive by seizing Jarablus, a Syrian frontier town, from Isis, before turning their sights on what the army said were YPG positions. The YPG denied they were there. Arab Ezza is about 20 miles west of Jarablus.