Turkey vows to continue campaign against Islamic State militants

Turkey had been reluctant to join U.S.-led coalition airstrikes against the Islamic State group.

Three F-16 jets took off from an airbase in southern Diyarbakir in the early hours of the morning and hit three IS targets with laser-guided smart bombs, the office of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a statement. He did not rule out further strikes, saying Turkey was determined to stave off all terror threats against it. It said a three-storey building used as a meeting place for jihadists in El Tabiye was hit 14km inside Syria from the Turkish border, an IS headquarters in El Zahiriye district about 11.5km and a similar building in Burgi, about 4km inside Syria.

The station did not cite a source for the report and there was no official confirmation of the airstrikes.

Police have arrested 297 people in raids across Turkey targeting the alleged supporters of militant groups, including ISIL.

– Turkish daily Hurriyet says Turkey is mulling border reinforcement measures including observation zeppelins, a concrete border wall, fences separated by a military patrol road, observation towers and even a moat at some points. “The slightest movement threatening Turkey will be retaliated against in the strongest way possible”.

Turkey has informed its allies about the military operation, and has now been informing North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and UN, Davutoglu said.

On Thursday, there were reports of clashes along the Syrian-Turkish border.

Turkish state TV said that the jets had not violated Syrian air space as they attacked the border village of Havar, next to the Turkish town of Kilis.

He said the airstrikes killed nine ISIS fighters, wounded 12 others and destroyed at least one ISIS vehicle and a heavy machine-gun.

The agreement on the Turkish air bases follows months of U.S. appeals to Turkey and delicate negotiations.

But it was only in response to incoming fire from the ISIS positions within Syria.

A cross-border firefight on Thursday between the Turkish army and Islamic State, which has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq, left one militant and one soldier dead.

Turkey and the U.S. have the experience of thinking and acting together over “collective defense” and “national security” issues, and it was priority for both countries to answer the common threats through their joint efforts, the statement said.

One DHKP-C suspect, a woman, was killed in a gunfight with police in Istanbul, Anadolu reported. “People who have been displaced can be placed in those safe zones”. Anadolu said that 35 of those arrested on Friday were PKK suspects in Sanliurfa.

Tensions have flared with Kurds in recent days after an IS suicide bombing in the southeastern Turkish city of Suruc on Monday killed 32 people.

“A total of 251 people were taken into detention for belonging to terrorist groups”, the statement said, adding that the raids took place in 13 provinces across Turkey.