Turkey bombs Islamic State targets in Syria

The jets pounded targets early on Friday, the prime minister’s office said in a statement, confirming earlier comments from a Turkish official.

As seen from outskirts of the village of Seve, on the Turkish side…

“We also heard reports that F16 jets were scrambled over the border area after the attack, although the Turkish government and the military are saying that they are just routine surveillance flights”.

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

Earlier in the week, a suicide bombing blamed on IS militants killed 32 people in south-eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border.

The murder of two police officers near the Syrian border on Wednesday was claimed by PKK militants, who said the killings were to “avenge” the Suruc bombing.

The agreement was finalised in a phone call between President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday.

“Now he has all the excuses he needs to go after the Kurds and also it makes him look very good in the eyes of the U.S., which will be happy that Turkey is on board in the coalition”. The YDG-H claimed that it shot and killed an alleged former Islamic State fighter in Istanbul late on Tuesday.

Nearly 5,000 police, including 2,000 riot-squad officers, raided addresses in districts including Kucukcekmece, Basaksehir, Eyup, Sultangazi, Gaziosmanpasa, Sariyer, Kagithane and Beyoglu.

“As of this morning, the Turkish military has destroyed ISIS targets with 100 percent accuracy, within the framework of the given orders”, the prime minister said. This week it launched a police operation, detaining 250 people that are believed to be affiliated to terrorist groups, including IS. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, also emphasized that Turkey had not changed its position regarding Assad in Syria.

“The operation against Daesh achieved its goal and will never stop as we observe movement on and near the Syrian border any moment”, he said.

Turkey will now let the US launch air strikes against IS from the Incirlik air base, US officials have said.

The developments ended a longstanding reluctance by Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member and ally of the United States, to play a more aggressive part in halting the Islamic State’s expanding reach in the Middle East.

The attacks are probably the first time that Turkey has publicly said it bombed Islamic State in Syria, as reported by Rami Abdulrahman, the head of the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

IS fighters attacked a Turkish border post, with the Turkish army retaliating with heavy weaponry, killing one of the militants, Turkish officials said.

“We have decided to further deepen our cooperation in the fight against ISIL, our common efforts to promote security and stability in Iraq, and our work to bring about a political settlement to the conflict in Syria“, said Laura Seal, a Defence Department spokeswoman.