Turkey detains IS suspects in new police sweep

Security forces has detained at least 15 people suspected of links to the Islamic State gr… The graffiti on the background reads in Turkish “Front”. The official insisted on anonymity because this person was not authorized to publicly discuss the talks with Turkey.

Over the past several days Turkey has taken unprecedented steps in support of the anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition.

The moves are likely to unravel any chance of peace between the two sides and follow a separate Turkish attack against Islamic state fighters in Syria on Friday.

On Sunday, Turkish jets again attacked PKK camps in northern Iraq.

The cross-border campaign was initially launched against IS targets in Syria, but then it expanded to PKK rebels in neighbouring northern Iraq, who are themselves bitterly opposed to the jihadist group.

Kurdish militia forces in Syria have accused Turkey of attacking them.

In a statement on Monday, the YPG said: “Instead of targeting IS terrorists’ occupied positions, Turkish forces attack our defenders’ positions”.

It was not immediately clear how an IS-free zone would be established along the Turkish-Syrian border.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the PKK and its PYD allies in Syria are the same as IS and must be eradicated.

The military mentoring of the PKK murdered two Turkish police on Wednesday, claiming they had collaborated with IS while in the bombing in Suruc. That’s why Turkish ground forces-which are the second largest in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, next to those of the United States, and very capable-are so needed in the fight against ISIS. “If we had been disturbed by Kurdish gains we would have been by Barzani’s Kurdish region”, he said, referring to the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq.

Turkey has agreed to allow manned and unmanned U.S. warplanes to launch air raids on the IS extremist group from airbases on Turkish soil.

He said the White House would not authorize any air exclusion zone in areas where the U.S. and Turkish airforces are carrying out strikes against ISIS. “So what happens when we set up a safe zone there and the Syrians want to conduct operations against people we’re supporting?” He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

“The PKK will also be wary of playing into the government’s hands by allowing Ankara to attach a “‘terrorist’ label” to it and also has its “hands full” in Syria fighting the jihadists, said Romano. “After long dialogues and negotiations, we have seen that compared to previous politicians, the AK Party and Mr. [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan have a different way of thinking and doing politics with regard to Kurds in Turkey”.

Demirtaş said during a press conference that Turkey has been drawn into a mire in the Middle East because of its erroneous policies on Syria. Turkish land forces also hit some other IS positions later in the day.

The YPG did not say whether there were casualties in the shelling.

Such zones, which should have been set up years ago, can be created not only in northern Syrian along the Turkish border but also in southern Syria along the Jordanian border. Conflicting reports are common in the aftermath of violent incidents.

Turkey regards the PKK, which has waged a deadly insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984, as a terror group and the main Syrian Kurdish group fighting IS – the Democratic Union Party (PYD) – as the PKK’s Syrian branch.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has indicated over the weekend Ocalan would receive no political delegations until the PKK disarms inside Turkey.