U.S.-led coalition planes hit Islamic State in north Syria: Turkish military

[August 30, 2016]  ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition warplanes hit Islamic State targets near the Syrian frontier town of Jarablus overnight, the Turkish military said on Tuesday, as forces backed by Ankara pushed deeper into north Syria.

Two A-10 planes hit and destroyed two Islamic State targets, the military said in a statement, without elaborating.

Turkey-backed forces seized Jarablus from Islamic State militants last week. They have since pushed into areas held by Kurdish-aligned militias that are supported by Washington.

Differences over Syria policy have long complicated the relationship between NATO allies Turkey and the United States.

While Turkey is a member of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, it is concerned about Washington's support for Syrian Kurdish fighters, which it sees as an extension of Kurdish militants who are waging an insurgency in Turkey.

Turkish army tanks and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters make their way in the Syrian border town of Jarablus as it is pictured from the Turkish town of Karkamis, in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey. REUTERS/Stringer

The United States has scrambled to get its feuding allies, Turkey and the Kurdish YPG militia, to focus their firepower on Islamic State instead of each other after clashes that have threatened to unravel U.S. war strategy in Syria.

(Reporting by Asli Kandemir; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Edmund Blair)

[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.