Turkey and its rebel allies opened up a new line of attack in northern Syria on Saturday as Turkish tanks crossed the frontier from Kilis province, making a western thrust in an operation to sweep militants from its border. The incursion from Kilis - which has been repeatedly targeted by Islamic State rockets from inside Syria over the last year - coincided with a push elsewhere in the region by the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, who seized several villages further east from the Sunni hard-liners.
By supporting the rebels, mainly Arabs and Turkmen fighting under the loose banner of the Free Syrian Army, Turkey is hoping to push out Islamic State militants and check the advance of US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters. The rebels last week took the frontier town of Jarablus with Turkish support, marking Ankara's first full-scale Syrian incursion since the start of the five-year-old war.