Turkey urges immediate action in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Daesh militants must immediately be pushed back from an area in Syria near the Turkish border.

“Daesh should be cleared from the Manbij region southwards at once and we are doing the necessary work for that," he said in comments broadcast on NTV Wednesday.

He was referring to a northern Syrian town that has been used as a logistical route by the Takfiri group.

It was not immediately clear whether Cavusoglu's remarks meant a possible Turkish military operation inside Syria.

Earlier, security sources said Turkey's military shelled an area of northern Syria after rockets allegedly hit the Turkish border town of Kilis.

Nobody was wounded in the morning attack on the town as the rockets hit empty land, the sources said.

Kilis, just across the border from an area controlled by the militants, has been regularly hit by rocket fire.

On Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced concerns over the conduct of Turkish military actions on the ground and its push for so-called safe zones inside Syria.

"What makes Russia and many others worried is that Turkey is still firing at Syrian territory; and there are still those who demand the establishment of some sort of safe zone in Syria, also the non-stop voices calling for ground action in Syria.

"We believe they are the ones who place their hopes for solving the Syrian crisis on force instead of through political solutions. We believe this will have disastrous outcomes; therefore, these pleas should shop," Lavrov said in Moscow.

Lavrov stressed that Russia insists the border between Syria and Turkey should be closed to cut off supplies for terrorists in Syria.

He expressed hope to see solutions from the UN regarding the matter in the new report on the situation soon to be released by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"We very much hope that the United Nations Secretariat's report will find solutions on those facts regarding how terrorist organizations use the Syrian-Turkish border as supply channel," he said.

"We stress that those channels that deliver weapons and personnel supplies to terrorists must be shut down," Lavrov said after meeting with the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

"Therefore, Russia believes the critical thing here is to close the Syrian-Turkish border since that is where these activities are rampant."

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