Why Turkey sending tanks into Syria is significant

Smoke billows following air strikes by a Turkish Army jet fighter on the Syrian Turkish border village of Jarabulus.

More than 80 ISIS targets were attacked in the first hours of "Operation Euphrates Shield" early Wednesday, officials say, as Turkish armor and warplanes targeted a key ISIS-held town across its border with Syria.

Jarablus is one of the few towns in northern Syria that ISIS still controls and is a critical location for supplies, money and fighters coming into ISIS-held areas. 

 

In recent months, much of Turkey's firepower has been directed at the Kurdish separatist PKK in southeastern Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq. It has also occasionally shelled ISIS positions in northern Syria, but its last-known airstrikes against ISIS were in November last year.