Turkey, US-led forces hit more ISIL targets

Turkey and U.S.-led coalition forces have intensified their joint military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq. 

Some 13 Turkish "Fırtına" (Storm) howitzers shelled six ISIL targets on Sept. 13 in the Wuguf area of northern Syria as part of the Euphrates Shied Operation, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said in a statement on Sept. 14. 

With the latest shelling, the total number of shellings since the beginning of the operation rose to 2,245 against 524 targets.

The operation, which was launched in cooperation with the U.S.-led coalition on Aug. 24, saw the Turkish military back the Free Syrian Army (FSA) with artillery, tanks, air power and Special Forces in a bid to sweep ISIL and other terrorist elements from its borders after a series of attacks targeting the country. Aircrafts from the anti-ISIL coalition also backed the operation.

On the same day, U.S.-led coalition forces pounded ISIL targets between al-Rai and Azaz in five airstrikes killing six militants. 

The TSK statement said there had been five coalition strikes on ISIL targets in the Yahmul, Kafr Ghan, Güzel Mezra and Jakka areas east of Azaz and six ISIL militants were killed, in addition to the destruction of four mortar positions and two defensive positions. The statement added that Turkish jets did not carry out the strikes but were waiting on the ground for any instant targets that might emerge. 

Meanwhile, U.S. warplanes eliminated a "significant chemical threat" to Iraqi civilians by bombing a complex of buildings near the northern city of Mosul that ISIL militants had converted from pharmaceutical manufacturing to chemical weapons production, the three-star general in charge of U.S. air operations...