Saudi Arabia shoots down Scud missile fired from Yemen

Saudi fighter jets have deployed to Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey, Saudi Defense Ministry adviser Ahmed Asseri said on Al-Arabiya television late on Saturday.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made the statement even as Syrian government forces were poised to advance into the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa province and allied Russian jets kept up air strikes on rebel-held towns north of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported today.

Mr Cavusoglu didn’t say how many planes would travel to the base but added Turkey and the Saudis would support a possible ground invasion of Syria.

The move could be aimed at pre-empting any Saudi plans to send ground forces to fight Isis in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to news that Saudi Arabia would send in soldiers by claiming it could spark a new world war.

Cavusoglu added that Saudi Arabia is also sending planes to the Turkish base of Incirlik, a key hub for US-led coalition operations against IS, already used by Britain, France and the United States carrying for cross-border air raids.

“If we have such a strategy, then Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch an operation from the land. At the moment it is not clear how many planes will come”, he said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said at a Riyadh press conference that the Swiss representation would largely help Iranians go to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimages including the hajj.

Turkey has also been fostering closer relations with other Gulf states such as Qatar, another major opponent of Assad.

They also identified the containment of the so called Islamic State (IS) insurgency, which controls some territory in Syria and Iraq, as an objective.

A Kurdish official said the base was taken by a Kurdish-allied group rather than by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Kurdish militia operating in Syria that is allied to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a Kurdish political organization based in northern Syria.

Separately, Jubeir said Switzerland would handle Saudi Arabia’s consular affairs in Iran and facilitate Iranian pilgrims coming to the kingdom, following Riyadh’s decision to cut diplomatic ties with Tehran. But if that doesn’t work, it will be because of the obstinance of the Syrian regime and that of its allies.