Al Qaeda in Syria leaves area where Turkey seeks buffer

The response from Washington came with Mark Toner from the US State Department emphasizing “We’ve been pretty clear from the podium and elsewhere saying there’s no zone, no safe haven-we’re not talking about that here. What our minister pointed out is that Turkish aircraft were not involved in yesterday’s [Wednesday] operations”, said Bilgic.

Last month, Turkey agreed to allow U.S.-led coalition forces to launch airstrikes against Daesh positions from Incirlik, located near Turkey’s border with war-torn Syria.

The planned buffer would prevent a powerful Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, from further expanding a zone of control that already stretches some 400 kilometres along the Syrian-Turkish border.

Six U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons, support equipment and about 300 personnel arrived August. 9, 2015, at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, from Aviano Air Base, Italy, to support Operation Inherent Resolve.

It is too early to say how long the fighters will stay at Incirlik, said Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Hemrick, a spokesman for U.S. European Command.

US presidential hopeful Jeb Bush seemed to suggest on Tuesday that his rival Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton, was partly responsible for the rise of IS as she had “stood by” as secretary of state in the Obama government as the situation in Iraq deteriorated. The new access should shorten flight times compared with flights from bases in Iraq or aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.

More than 240,000 people have been killed in Syria since the conflict began with anti-government demonstrations in March 2011.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu last week said his country will open other bases for operations against Islamic State, the radical Sunni group that conquered parts of Iraq and Syria and declared a self-styled caliphate, or religious state.

Turkey is in agreement with the U.S.to block the Democratic Union Party (PYD) from a ISIL-free “safe zone” in northern Syria, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.

“Facing this current scene, our only option was to withdraw and leave our frontline positions [with Islamic State]in the northern Aleppo countryside for any fighting faction in these areas to take over”, the Nusra Front said.

Last week, U.S. officials said five Pentagon-trained fighters had been captured, probably by the Nusra Front branch in Syria.