MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY-SYRIA Fighting rages in Syrian town near Turkish border

Record ID: 144157

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/TURKEY-SYRIA Fighting rages in Syrian town near Turkish border
  • Date: 13th August 2015
  • Summary: QARA MAZRA, SYRIA (AS SEEN FROM EKINCIK, TURKEY) (AUGUST 13, 2015) (REUTERS) SMOKE RISING FROM AREA OF FIGHTING / BIRDS SCATTERING SKYWARD TANK CARRYING WHITE FLAG DRIVING ALONG SYRIAN SIDE OF BORDER SMOKE BILLOWING FROM AREA WITH AUDIO OF EXPLOSION, GUNFIRE TANK CARRYING WHITE FLAG DRIVING ALONG BORDER VARIOUS OF WHITE TRUCK DRIVING PAST ARMOURED VEHICLE DRIVING ALONG BORDER AS EXPLOSION SEEN IN BACKGROUND (WITH AUDIO OF GUNFIRE)
  • Embargoed: 28th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABT6IWJCR3ITQGG35OZ0X4X5UO
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Smoke billowed from the Syrian village of Qara Mazra on Thursday (August 13) and a tank carrying a white flag drove along the Syrian side of the border as opposition groups fought to regain control of the town from Islamic State.
    Clashes were visible from the Turkish side of the border although it was not immediately clear which groups were involved in fighting.
    The village is near the area where Turkey wants to set up a buffer zone.
    Earlier this week, the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front said it has quit frontline positions against Islamic State north of Aleppo and ceded them to other rebels, leaving an area of northern Syria where Turkey wants to set up a buffer zone.
    A Nusra Front statement dated Sunday (August 9) criticised a Turkish-U.S. plan to drive Islamic State from the Syrian-Turkish border area, and said the aim was to serve "Turkey's national security" rather than the fight against President Bashar al-Assad.
    The United States and Turkey last month announced their intention to drive Islamic State from a strip of territory in northern Syria near the Turkish border in a campaign that would provide air cover for Syrian rebels in the area.
    The planned buffer would prevent a powerful Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, from further expanding a zone of control that already stretches some 400 km (250 miles) along the Syrian-Turkish border. The YPG has seized wide areas of territory from Islamic State this year, backed by U.S.-led air strikes.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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