The operation comes as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey had said they were in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory.

Turkish tanks on Wednesday approached the Syrian border and were firing on targets, but stopped short of crossing the frontier, CNN Turk reported, showing live footage of several tanks maneuvering along the border.

Earlier, 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.

The operation comes as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey had said they were in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory on Jarablus, aiming to preempt a potential attempt by Syrian Kurdish YPG militia to take it.

The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the US-backed campaign against ISIS, took near complete control of Hasaka city on Tuesday. The group already controls swathes of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syria war in 2011. Their growing sway has been alarming Ankara, which is fighting its own insurgency with Kurdish PKK militants.

The operation comes as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey had said they were in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory.

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