Turkey has launched attacks against U.S.-backed Kurdish militias and Islamic State positions across the border in Syria.
The Turkish military on August 23 fired on IS extremists and the Kurdish YPG militia targets in the border towns of Jarablus and Manbij, which was recently seized from militants by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in televised remarks on August 22 that the country's border areas with Syria must be "completely cleansed" of the IS terrorist group, after the government said the extremists were involved in a deadly attack in Turkey’s south over the weekend.
A suicide bomber carried out the August 20 attack on a wedding party in the southeastern city of Gaziantep that left 53 people dead and dozens of others wounded.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on August 21 that the attack, the deadliest in Turkey so far this year, was carried out with the involvement of the militant group.