Turkish tanks on Wednesday entered the Syrian border and were firing on targets, the Reuters news agency reported quoting militiary sources.

 

Earlier in the day, CNN Turk said the tanks were crossing into Syria but then reported they had remained within Turkish territory.

 

Turkish fighter jets, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, struck ISIS targets near the border town of Jarablus in Syria and tanks fired on the rebel positions with cross-border fire, military sources said.

 

A Turkish government press office said earlier on Wednesday that Turkish special forces units supported by warplanes from the US-led coalition launched an operation in northern Syria to wipe out ISIS along the Turkey-Syria border.

 

The Turkish army began firing artillery rounds into the Syrian border town of Jarablus at around 0100 GMT, state-run Anadolu agency said.

 

White and grey plumes of smoke rose from atop hills in northern Syria, Turkey’s CNN Turk television showed in footage broadcast live from the Turkish town of Karkamis across the border.

 

Turkey had vowed on Monday to “completely cleanse” ISIS from its border region after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a Kurdish wedding in southeastern city of Gaziantep.