This comes a day after the Turkish jets killed over 25 Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday. They responded by carrying out heavy artillery strikes against the Kurdish town of Darbasiya. There were no conclusive immediate reports of casualties.
Meanwhile, activists said intense battles are taking place between the Kurdish People Protection Units (YPG) and the Turkish army, during an attempt of ground intrusion by the Turkish forces in northern Syria.
Turkey considers the YPG as the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a separatist group fighting an insurgency against the Turkish state, and sees the establishment of a Kurdish autonomous zone on its southern border as a national security threat. It also accuses the YPG of forcibly displacing Arab civilians, a charge the group denies.
However, Dorrian said in a video conference from Baghdad that the YPG forces continue to "make tremendous sacrifices" in the fight against ISIS and in preparation for the assault on Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The coalition had forces within six miles of the strikes, he added, but none were put in harm's way by the strikes. "We have no secret agenda", he said.
Abdi Ferhad Sahin, a PKK terrorist on one of the most wanted list, was seen on Wednesday standing next to a USA commander in Syria's Karachok region, which was bombed in Turkish anti-terror operations against the PKK.
Pope Francis Gave a Surprise TED Talk
In it Francis rails against today's "culture of waste" which these days extended beyond food and goods but to people themselves. TED is a media organisation that posts talks from its annual conference online for free.
USA officials provided a different characterization of what occurred, saying that American personnel had immediately expressed their objections to the Turkish plans when they were notified.
Rather than ally with the legal Syrian government and Russian Federation to destroy ISIS, the Pentagon evidently prefers to continue its 6-year failed regime change operation against Damascus which has wrought nothing but ruin and death in the country.
"We consider such actions unacceptable and going against the founding principles of global relations", the Russian foreign ministry said, calling for "all sides to show restraint" and focus on fighting terrorism.
The YPG on Wednesday warned of "widening aggression", and said Turkey had shelled at least three separate areas along the border, including Darbasiyah.
Erdogan said in an interview with Reuters that the strikes on Sinjar were aimed at denying a base to the PKK, and that Turkey had informed its counterparts in the coalition of its plans. Turkey's defense minister said the PKK would not be allowed to establish a presence in northern Iraq.
She accused the Turkish government of sparking the latest clashes in an attempt to distract from its weakened position after the slim referendum victory. "And this was notification, certainly not coordination as you would expect from a partner and an ally in the fight against ISIS", he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. But Turkey has its own plans for Syria where it used to hold imperial sway and it is far better positioned to influence events than the far off Europeans and Americans. "Words are not enough".
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