ANKARA, TURKEY—Turkey signalled Tuesday it would step up its engagement in the Syrian war, as Turkish-backed Syrian rebels massed along the border to assault one of the last Syrian frontier towns held by Daesh militants. Ankara is also concerned about the growing power of U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, who it says are linked to Kurdish groups waging an insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Syrian activists, meanwhile, said that hundreds of Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters were gathered in the Turkish border area near Karkamis in preparation for an attack on Jarablus. The Kurds’ outsized role in the Syrian civil war is a source of concern for the Syrian government as well. Government and Kurdish forces have shared control of Hasakeh since the early years of the Syrian war.

Source: thestar August 23, 2016 22:30 UTC