ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hundreds of fighters with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) are reportedly readying to assault the Islamic State (ISIS) held town of Jarablus on Syria’s northwestern border from Turkish territory with Ankara's support.
“The factions are gathering in an area near the (Turkey-Syria) border,” an FSA official said on Sunday.
“Every day there are groups of fighters entering from inside Syria across a secret crossing to a Turkish base where they are gathering in preparation of the assault on Jarablus,” another FSA source told Reuters.
One of the sources said that the FSA groups are gathering near the Turkish town of Qarqamish, just across the border from Jarablus.
The move comes shortly after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured Manbij from ISIS militants earlier this month, putting them in an advantageous position to advance against the remaining ISIS militants on the Turkish border. That is a move that Turkey has warned against since the beginning of this war.
This isn’t the first time Turkey has supported FSA fighters in anti-ISIS operations along the border. In April, it backed an FSA offensive against the ISIS-held border town of Al-Rai. While the fighters successfully pushed the militants out of the town, the FSA lost it again to an ISIS counteroffensive days later.
Turkey has also forcibly prevented Kurdish forces from advancing into that same northwestern swath of border territory, the Jarablus-Azaz line, last February, when it fired artillery at Peoples Protection Units (YPG) fighters advancing towards Azaz from the Afrin Canton.
Ankara has long been urged by both the United States and Russia to completely seal off its border with northwestern Syria, since ISIS has used it to smuggle in new recruits as well as arms.
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