Turkey launches new artillery strikes at IS in Syria

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s artillery shelled Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, a senior Turkish official said, amid reports that Turkey-backed Syrian rebels are preparing an offensive against an IS-held border town in northern Syria.

The Ankara official said the Turkish shelling came after mortar rounds, believed to have been fired by the militants from the Syrian town of Jarablus, landed on Turkish territory. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, did not provide further details.

Turkey has increased security measures at its border opposite the Islamic State-held Jarablus, deploying tanks and armored personnel carriers in recent days. Syrian activists have said that hundreds of Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters have gathered in the Turkish border area of Karkamis in preparation for an attack on Jarablus.

Ankara is concerned about the growing power of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, who it says are linked to Kurdish groups waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

In Syria, a Kurdish-led group known as the Syria Democratic Forces earlier this month liberated the nearby town of Manbij from the Islamic State group, triggering concerns in Ankara that they would seize the entire border strip with Turkey.

Jarablus is the last border point that directly connects the Islamic State group with Turkey and the outside world, and separates Kurdish-controlled areas in northern Syria.

The Hurriyet newspaper and others said the mortar rounds hit the town of Karkamis, in Turkey’s Gaziantep province. One of them exploded in the garden of a house, but no one was hurt.

The state-run Anadolu Agency reported Turkey has increased security measures at its border opposite Jarablus, deploying tanks and armored personnel carriers.

State-run Anadolu Agency said Turkish artillery fired 40 rounds against IS targets in retaliation, after three rockets fired from Syria landed into an empty field in the town of Kilis. The report says the Turkish Armed Forces “covered the area with fire” without providing any details. No one was hurt by the rockets.

On Monday, Turkish artillery attacked a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia as well as IS positions in Syria.