“As of this time, there has been no impact to Incirlik Air Base and counter-ISIL air operations from Incirlik continue”, a senior Pentagon official said in a statement. ABC News reported that a Pentagon spokesman said that internal power sources are being used at Incirlik, and that USA military personnel are not in any immediate danger. The 1980 “September 12 Coup” helped end a period of anarchy and terror, but not before thousands of people were arrested and dozens were executed and tortured.
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The United States urged Turkey on Saturday to exercise restraint after a failed military coup sparked a government crackdown, and warned its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally that public suggestions of a US role in the plot were “utterly false” and harmful to relations. A statement released by the embassy in Ankara warned USA citizens that the Turkish government warned of an uprising attempt. The Turkish government is also fighting Kurdish rebels in the southeast, a conflict that had quieted in recent years, but was inflamed by the Syrian civil war.
Incirlik Airbase is home to about 2,000 mostly US Air Force personnel, A-10 attack planes, surveillance aircraft, and KC-135 refueling tankers that service approximately one-third of refueling operations for planes involved in offensives against ISIS.
William Fallon, a retired admiral who previously ran U.S. military operations in the Middle East as head of Central Command, said the situation was “a tremendous dilemma for the [Obama] administration because here we go again with another country that has an elected president being tossed out by the military, no matter that he has become increasingly autocratic and problematic”.
From 2011 to 2014, Turkey had a loose border that allowed ammunition and militants to pass freely into Syria, presumably to fight the regime of President Bashar Assad.
The agency issued a notice saying it was prohibiting all US commercial and private aircraft from operating into or out of any airport in Turkey.
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Turkey’s response to the coup attempt has been swift and harsh.
