It is believed to favor some less radical Islamists who vie with the Islamic State.
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Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said late Wednesday that Turkey will beef up its border security.
Ankara sees the Islamic State virtually as a child of Assad, whom Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan considered an ally until their acrimonious falling-out over the unfolding insurrection. The Turkish army informed about this, mentioning that shooting took place between the terrorists of the “Islamic State” and border protecting units of Turkey.
The White House has declined to comment on reports the two had reached a new agreement over the use of the U.S. Air Force’s Incirlik base in southern Turkey, from where the U.S. has not been allowed to fly any bombing sorties, but does launch drones.
Serhat Güvenç, a lecturer in global relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, said that Thursday’s clashes could spell the beginning of Turkey’s full-blown involvement in the Syrian conflict and the wider Middle East.
Thirty-two people – mainly young activists, one as young as 18, preparing for an aid mission to Syria – were killed on Monday in the devastating suicide bombing in the border town of Suruc.
In any case, Erdogan’s generals would seem reluctant to obey the call, if it came.
Turkey began reinforcing its border with Syria in the wake of the Suruc attack, building a “modular wall” along part of its frontier and reinforcing wire fencing and digging extra ditches.
Turkey has nonetheless intensified its efforts to break up Islamic State networks on its own territory.
Turkish officials say they have detained more than 500 people suspected of working with IS in the last six months.
It inflamed tensions with Turkey’s Kurdish minority, which is unhappy over the lack of support provided by the government to Kurdish militias fighting IS inside Syria.
The soldier was killed from fire from an area controlled by IS in Syria in the Turkish border region of Kilis, the state Anatolia news agency said.
The Kurds now control about 400 kilometres along the Turkish border, while the Islamic State has about 80.
After the Suruc bombing, Turkish officials said the attacks by Isis were most likely intended as retaliation for their country’s expanded counter-terrorism measures.
“Islamic State is a terrorist organization, there is no doubt about that. We were afraid of a second explosion that’s why we ran away”. Monday’s suicide bombing in the southeastern town of Suruc highlighted fears about Syria’s conflict spilling onto Turkish soil.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters Tuesday that early indications pointed to involvement by ISIS in the Suruc bombing, though an investigation hadn’t been completed. It is time for Turkey to revisit its policies in the region.*. “It should not be viewed as an attack carried out by a group against another in Turkey; we should display a common stance against it as an attack against the whole [of] Turkey“, he said.
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“They are not friends of ISIS but they are friendly with Islamists”.
