ANKARA: US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Turkey on Wednesday for critical talks with its leadership as Ankara launched a military operation to drive Islamic State jihadists out of a key Syrian border town, television pictures showed.
In the highest-ranking visit by a Western official since Turkey´s July 15 failed coup, Biden will seek to repair relations with its NATO ally after the putsch, which Ankara blames on Pennsylvania-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
Euphrates Shield
Operation Euphrates Shield was launched in the early hours of Wednesday when Turkish artillery started pounding IS targets around Jarablusus.
Turkish F-16 fighter jets and coalition war planes also hit targets inside Syria while an AFP photographer reported seeing almost a dozen Turkish tanks cross into Syria to support the operation.Â
Tensions had flared across the Syria-Turkey border the previous day following rocket fire from Jarabulus which landed inside Turkey, with the Turkish army firing howitzer rounds in response.Â
The operation also appeared aimed at pre-empting any assault on Jarabulus by pro Kurdish militias, who also oppose IS but are accused by Turkey of seeking to carve out a Kurdish region in northern Syria.
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