Syrian rebels prepare attack from Turkey on Isis-held town

Hundreds of Syrian rebels are preparing to launch an operation to capture a town held by Islamic State at the border with Turkey, a senior Syrian rebel said yesterday, a move that would frustrate Kurdish hopes to expand further in that area.

The rebels, Turkey-backed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), are expected to assault Jarablus from inside Turkey in the next few days, said the rebel official, who is familiar with the plans but declined to be identified.

“The factions are gathering in an area near the border [inside Turkey],” the rebel said.

Jarablus, on the western bank of the Euphrates river, is the last significant town held by the militant Islamist group on Syria’s border with Turkey. It is 54km east of al-Rai, a border town the same rebel groups recently took from Islamic State.

By taking Jarablus themselves, the rebel groups would preclude an assault on the town by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish-dominated militias who on August 6th took the city of Manbij, 30km to the south, from Islamic State.

Turkey, an important supporter of the FSA groups, is worried that Kurds are using the SDF's westwards expansion against Islamic State to extend their influence across northern Syria. The SDF already holds the eastern bank of the Euphrates opposite Jarablus.

On Saturday, Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said that Ankara would play a more active role in addressing the conflict in Syria in the coming six months to stop it being torn along ethnic lines.

On Friday families of Islamic State fighters were evacuated from Jarablus and another city nearby, al-Bab, to the group’s stronghold of Raqqa, a war monitor said.

– (Reuters)