Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu
“Our border must be completely cleansed from Daesh,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in televised remarks, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
“It is our most natural right to fight at home and abroad against such a terrorist organization.”
A child suicide bomber, aged “between 12 and 14”, is suspected of having carried out the attack late Saturday in the southeastern city of Gaziantep near the Syrian border on the orders of the ISIS terrorist group, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Cavusoglu said Turkey has already taken an “active” role in the fight against ISIS, allowing coalition forces to use a key air base in the south of the country for strikes on the extremist group.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “hundreds of rebel fighters are inside Turkish territory, preparing to launch an offensive on Jarablus against ISIS.”
“There is already daily artillery fire from Turkey on the edges of the town,” said the Britain-based monitoring group's head, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The Dogan news agency reported that Turkish artillery fired 65 mortar shells at ISIS targets around Jarablus on Saturday, AFP reported.
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