U.S. and Turkish forces would hit IS or Kurdish militants if they entered the safe zone, CNN Turk quoted Sinirlioglu as saying. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the mission.
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Missouri The United States presented its first manned air strikes against Islamic State manages from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on Wednesday, the You can introduce.S. navy said.
The U.S. European Command said in a statement that the U.S. Air Force deployed a “small detachment” of six F-16 jets, support equipment and about 300 personnel at Incirlik Air Base. This is generating unease among U.S. military officials who want to see Turkey follow through on its pledge to join the air campaign. The official indicated those forces are deemed sufficient for the moment but might change.
The U.S. began drone flights from Incirlik last week after Turkey agreed in July to a long-standing American request to use the base for closer airstrikes.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says his country is determined to set up a safe zone just across the border in northern Syria where civilians would be safe from attack by either Syrian government forces or Islamic State (IS) militants. The official asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. There have been no direct Turkish airstrikes on ISIS since the day the U.S.-Turkish coalition was announced, with all emphasis going to the fight against the PKK. “(Ahrar) is more powerful today than other groups allied to Turkey”, the University of Edinburgh professor said.
“Turkey is coming off the sideline”, Harmer said. The Observatory, a UK-based group that reports on the war using sources on the ground, said at least 25 rebels and eight Islamic State fighters were killed in Marea. “All that nastiness that ISIS can do could be turned against Turkey in very short order”.
No Turkish planes took part in the raids.
Turkey is expressing a “firm commitment” to participating in the US-led coalition’s anti-Daesh efforts, the Pentagon said Monday.
Turkey has been bombing targets of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the southeast of the country and also in neighboring Iraq over the last few weeks, alongside IS targets in Syria.
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The airstrikes inside Syria mark an expansion of the US air campaign against the terrorist group, which was allegedly created by Washington to destabilize the Middle East region.
