US and Turkey working to close northern Syrian border to IS

The United States is starting an operation with Turkey to finish securing the northern Syrian border, said US Secretary of State John Kerry. Islamic State militants have used the area as a lucrative smuggling route.

“The entire border of northern Syria – 75 per cent of it has now been shut off. And we are entering an operation with the Turks to shut off the other remaining 98 km,” he told CNN.

Mr Kerry arrived in Paris on Monday to pay respects to victims of Friday’s attacks, which killed 129 people.

The radical Islamists control the area where the operations would take place. The US and Turkey hope by sweeping Islamic State from that border zone they can deprive it of a smuggling route which has helped swell its ranks with foreign fighters and boost its coffers by illicit trade.

Under a long-discussed joint US-Turkey plan, moderate Syrian rebels, trained by the US army, would be expected to fight Islamic State on the ground and help co-ordinate air strikes by the US coalition, launched from Turkey.

Diplomats familiar with the plans said cutting off one of Islamic State’s lifelines could be a game-changer in that corner of Syria’s complex war. The core of the rebels, who number less than 60, would be highly equipped and able to call in close air support when needed, they say.

Challenges

But there are major challenges. Turkey is distrustful of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which has proved a useful US ally in fighting Islamic State.

It controls adjacent territory on the eastern side of the Euphrates river, just across from Karkamis and the jihadist-held town of Jarablus. Ankara wants it to advance no further and considers the Euphrates a red line not to be crossed.

Earlier, speaking in Paris after meetings French president François Hollande and foreign minister Laurent Fabius, Kerry said increased co-ordination with Russia against Islamic State would require progress in the political process to end the Syrian war.