US military launches first Syria drone strike from base in Turkey

Turkey, a member of the worldwide coalition led by its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Washington, had so far declined to take robust action against jihadists but after a deadly bombing in July in a border town blamed on suspected IS jihadists, it launched limited strikes against the group in Syria.

The two allies have been working on plans to provide air cover for US-trained Syrian rebels to target Islamic State (IS) militants on a strip of territory about 50 miles (80km) along the Turkish border, reports Reuters.

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Toner said the U.S. continues to seek a peaceful resolution to the Syrian crisis that has claimed the lives of more than 211,000 victims and displaced millions. “We will together start a comprehensive fight against Daesh very soon”.

But observers say PKK fighters have been on the receiving end of far more airstrikes than IS. “It was foolish to send them in in small numbers”, White said.

The al-Nusra Front is on the US list of terrorist organizations due to its purported links to al-Qaeda.

A captive who is described as a guard from the Division 30 headquarters says the new fighters have direct contact with the Americans, and that each man received $400, 400 Turkish lira, an M16 rifle and a device to contact the U.S.-led coalition.

The U.S. said Wednesday that it had indications that some the rebels have been captured by al-Nusra.

But there are major challenges.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011 as government forces loyal to Assad fight opposition and radical Islamist militant groups, including the Nusra Front and the Islamic State.

The Turkish official said the new “comprehensive struggle” doesn’t mean a shift from fighting PKK to Islamic State.

The NSF called for American air strikes and the al Nusra attack was repulsed.

The US has launched its first drone strikes at northern Syria from a Turkish airbase, the Pentagon has reported.

“There are other countries within the coalition… interested in joining such as Britain and France, while among the countries in the region, there is a possibility that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan will take part”, Çavuşoğlu said.

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. “It has to be eliminated”.

ISIS has seized large parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq in its drive to create a self-declared “caliphate”. The area encompasses Incirlik Air Base, where the U.S. began flying armed, unmanned aerial systems from over the weekend.