US begins air strikes against Islamic State from Turkish base

A US drone had last week executed a single lethal airstrike against an ISIS target in Syria but this was the first time manned US fighter jets had carried out raids after taking off from Turkey’s strategically-located Incirlik base.

Turkey said on Tuesday it had agreed with the United States on terms for setting up a “safe zone” inside northern Syria as part of their campaign against Islamic State militants, but the US State Department denied there was any such agreement. The official was not authorized to discuss F-16 mission details publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Turkey has come in for even more criticism because at the same time that it granted the U.S. access to the base at Incirlik, it also began to launch a series of airstrikes against Kurdish positions in Iraq and Syria.

Incirlik Air Base is a U.S. Air Forces in Europe installation. The official indicated those forces are deemed sufficient for the moment but might change. Turkish fighter jets were not part of the manned U.S. strikes, according to Turkish officials.

Nusra Front’s statement criticised a Turkish-US plan to drive IS from the Syrian-Turkish border area, saying the aim was to serve “Turkey’s national security” rather than the fight against President Bashar al-Assad. The official asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

“The strategic relationship between us and Turkey is necessary to face challenges and shape the future of Syria”.

Turkey, a key backer of a range of rebel groups in Syria, has agreed with Washington to work on expelling IS from a swathe of territory in northern Aleppo province.

The withdrawal of al-Nusra, which mainly acts in conjunction with a wide range of other rebel forces, may facilitate worldwide backing for rebels fighting Islamic State in the area. “All that nastiness that ISIS can do could be turned against Turkey in very short order”.

Later in the day, both the US Central Command and the Turkish Military confirmed that the strikes took place.

“After stressing the need to strengthen moderate Syrian opposition forces with the train-and-equip program of Turkey and the U.S., Davutoğlu did not rule out sending Turkish troops into Syria if needed”. In recent weeks, Ankara and Washington announced they will support the creation of what has been described as a “safe zone”, free of the Islamic State along the Syria-Turkey border.