Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the United States had not lost focus on the threat from Nusra Front. He declined to provide additional information about the specific target or whether it was successful.
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Turkey and the U.
“Qatar reiterated its full solidarity with the Republic of Turkey for its actions and measures to protect its borders and preservation of its security and stability”.
Officials believe this will cut off supplies for the Islamic State’s “capital” of Raqqa, while U.S. and Turkish warplanes pound the group’s fighters from air bases in Turkey.
If confirmed, the capture of the U.S.-trained fighters would be another blow to the U.S. military’s still fledgling program to deploy local forces to counter Islamic State militants inside Syria, supporting them with U.S.-led coalition air strikes. “We’re seeing that manned and unmanned American planes are arriving and soon we will launch a comprehensive battle against Islamic State all together”. Indeed, even the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) is viewed differently under the prevailing conditions because the PKK have assisted Kurdish forces that are being supported by America.
Turkey last month agreed to let the United States launch strikes against Islamic State militants from Turkey, a long-awaited concession by a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally which has disagreed with Washington over policy in Syria. That strike also wounded two adults, according to an investigation released in May by the U.S. military.
Too great a Kurdish victory over the Islamic State in the coming weeks would spell a de-facto Kurdish state on Turkey’s southern border, which Erdogan has made clear he won’t tolerate. “The response, however, must be proportionate, targeted and by no means endanger the democratic political dialogue in the country”, Johannes Hahn, the EU commissioner for enlargement, said on Tuesday. The US had so far only launched surveillance drones from those bases, until this newest flight.
It is unclear at the moment how much gear will be moved from other operating bases in the region toward Incirlik, but Davis noted that being able to operate from a base as close to Syrian territory as the Turkish base helps the US to “effectively and efficiently get more aircraft over targets in a timely fashion”.
US defense officials announced earlier this week that drones had taken off from Incirlik to conduct missions over Syria, but Wednesday’s strike marked the first time an airstrike had been conducted.
The nation has also been criticised for failing to stop the flow of jihadists to and fro across its border with Syria, concentrating instead on an “anti-terror” campaign bombing Kurdish militants.
Mr Cavusoglu said at the start of a meeting with Mr Kerry the anti-IS operation would be helped by moderate Syrian rebels.
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“I frankly don’t know what the legal authority is,” Toner said, arguing that the measure was defensive in nature and would only be used if Assad’s forces attacked US-trained rebels (many of whom have gone on to join Al-Qaeda affiliate groups and ISIS itself). Anyone baring arms against the state is considered a terrorist.
