They show Turkish tanks in a defensive position along the border, ready for the inevitable backlash that will come as Ankara attacks Islamic State targets and moves to interdict its supply of materials and fighters across its vast border with Syria and Iraq.
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A captive who is described as a guard from the Division 30 headquarters says the new fighters have direct contact with the Americans, and that each man received $400, 400 Turkish lira, an M16 rifle and a device to contact the U.S.-led coalition.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011 as government forces loyal to Assad fight opposition and radical Islamist militant groups, including the Nusra Front and the Islamic State.
The US has carried out its first air strike on so-called Islamic State in Syria from a base in Turkey, a Pentagon spokesman has said.
“A US drone today carried out one airstrike in Syria near Raqqa”, a Turkish official told news agency AFP.
The US said it provided “defensive support fire” at the time of Friday’s attack, but at least five fighters were killed and more than 10 were abducted.
“Turkey feared the creation of a Kurdish belt along its longest land border, which would have cut off its access to much of Syria”, said Aaron Stein, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.
“Now we are training and equipping the moderate (Syrian) opposition together with the United States, and we will also start our fight against Daesh very effectively soon”, Cavusoglu said.
The two top diplomats met at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of a regional security gathering hosted by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The Reuters and BBC articles include some more little tidbits about the volatile political situation in Turkey, including the broadening of Turkey’s operations against the Kurdish PKK to include the YPG militia – the primary U.S. allies on the ground against the Islamic State in Syria.
Erdoğan has said the “safe zone” created by pushing out ISIS could allow 1.7 million refugees in Turkey to start going home.
He said the U.S. was planning to fly manned aircraft out of Turkey but that had not yet begun.
“The Division was formed from the honourable sons of Syria to help rid their country of Assad gangs and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil)”, read the statement.
Cavusoglu said that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will arrive in Ankara next week for talks on the conflict.
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Washington has defended Turkey’s actions against the PKK, which is recognized as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union.
