He also added that implementing the technical orders at the operational level could take a few days. He said cooperation on that is “a work in progress”.
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Turkey’s foreign ministry has denied claims that the country helped al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, the al-Nusra Front, which is accused of kidnapping several U.S.-backed Syrian fighters last month.
Turkey’s military operations against Kurdish militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey, where Ankara has been carrying out air strikes over the past month, would continue until the group laid down its weapons, Cavusoglu also said. “We believe that Turkey is committed to fully participating as soon as possible”. Kirby also criticized repeatedly raised questions on Turkey’s intention to contribute to the anti-ISIL fight.
Meanwhile, Islamic State’s move in Syria seems designed to counter an offensive planned by Turkey and the United States to oust the Islamic State from the last stretch of territory it holds along the Turkish border, extending from Jarablous, along the Euphrates River, westward to the areas being contested. The result has been fierce blowback from the PKK and anger from the US-backed YPG. That was the first time the United States had done so from Turkish soil.
Turkmen groups have issued a call for volunteers to enlist in a proposed police force that will be tasked with policing the zone, in addition to those Turkmen fighters who have enrolled in the U.S.-led Train and Equip program. Earlier, the U.S. additionally started flying armed drones from Incirlik, which is only a brief distance from targets in northern Syria. “We’re concluding those subtle elements now”, Kirby said.
For many, it is not easy to understand the reasoning behind the previously reluctant North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally’s “change of heart” to become more involved in the fight against ISIL. The Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said Tuesday that Turkey had agreed to join the coalition airstrikes against the terrorist organization. “We would have never allowed him to go inside if we had known that Nusra would target them”, al Wawi said.
Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the UK-based observatory, confirmed to Newsweek that the villages were captured by ISIS from both the Islamic Front, a moderate Syrian rebel group, and other Syrian rebels.
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Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, told Reuters on Monday that his country and the U.S. were close to launching a “comprehensive” air operations to drive out ISIS fighters from the area in northwestern Syria.
