Turkish-backed rebels 'cleansing' Syrian town of Islamic State: Turkish minister

Turkish-backed rebels 'cleansing' Syrian town of Islamic State: Turkish minister

MURAD SEZER

In an interview with Turkey's NTV channel on Thursday, the minister also said Turkish-backed rebels were "cleansing" Jarablus of Islamic State, who had controlled the strategic town.

Syrian rebels backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes entered one of Islamic State's last strongholds on the Turkish-Syrian border on Wednesday, in Turkey's first major U.S.-backed incursion into its southern neighbor.

Turkey sees the YPG, the armed wing of the Syrian Kurdish party PYD, as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency in Turkey's southeast.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Can Sezer and David Dolan; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Nick Tattersall)

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