Turkey ratchets up offensive

Rebels supported by Turkey fought Kurdish-backed forces in north Syria yesterday, as Ankara ratcheted up its cross-border offensive by saying it had launched air strikes on Kurdish forces and Islamic State.

Turkey's government, which is fighting a Kurdish insurgency at home, has said the Syrian campaign launched this week is as much about targeting Islamic State as it is about preventing Kurdish forces filling the vacuum left when Islamists withdraw.

Turkish security sources said two F-16 jets bombed a site controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, which is part of the broader US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition. The sources also said the jets hit six Islamic State targets.

On the ground, Turkish-backed Syrian rebels fought forces aligned to the SDF near the frontier town of Jarablus. Forces opposed to Ankara said Turkish tanks were deployed, a charge denied by Turkey's rebel allies. It also sent more tanks into Syria yesterday, AFP reported.

Turkey launched its offensive into Syria on Wednesday, supporting its rebel allies with Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes. It seized control of Jarablus from Islamic State.

Any action against Kurdish forces in Syria puts Turkey at odds with its Nato ally the United States, which backs the SDF and YPG, seeing them as the most reliable and effective ally in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

As Turkey stepped up its biggest operation in Syria since the start of the war, the US and Russia announced progress in talks on agreeing a new ceasefire.

In Geneva on Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said they had cleared key obstacles in ceasefire talks but had yet to reach a final deal.

"Today I can say that we achieved clarity on the path forward" for a revamped cessation of hostilities, Kerry said. Lavrov concurred, saying that "very important steps" had been made on a deal to stop the violence.

Meanwhile, government forces yesterday retook control of Daraya near the Syrian capital after rebels and civilians were evacuated following a four-year siege by regime forces, a military source told AFP.

In Aleppo, at least 15 civilians were killed in a barrel bomb attack on a rebel-held district of Syria's Aleppo city yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

It said regime aircraft had dropped two explosive-packed barrel bombs several minutes apart on the Maadi district of eastern Aleppo. Dozens more were also injured in the two strikes and the death toll was expected to rise.