Turkey, U.S. to provide air cover for Syria ‘safe zone’

Missouri The United States presented its first manned air strikes against Islamic State manages from the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on Wednesday, the You can introduce.S. navy said.

State TV said pro-government forces “continued their resistance” to the attack on al-Foua and nearby Kefraya, which both have Shia populations.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Assad’s regime had not so far hampered U.S.-backed forces, but he nonetheless raised the possibility of strikes against it should the need arise.

“If there was a no-fly zone and a safe haven inside Syria, there wouldn’t be such a flow [of migrants to the EU countries]”, Davutoglu said.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu are to meet Thursday for what is seen a make-or-break meeting on forming a coalition.

In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen, Mr Davutoglu called on the worldwide community to do more to resolve the four-year conflict in Syria and denied that Turkey had helped so-called Islamic State and other extremist groups.

U.S. warplanes are returning to Incirlik more than a decade after the U.S. military withdrew from the base over Turkey’s refusal to allow attacks on Iraq from its soil.

Al Nusra said the Turkish government and the US-led alliance against Daesh were seeking to direct the battle according to their interests and priorities, and said Syrian groups taking part were not doing so of their free will.

The PYD is a Syria-based affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US, the EU and a number of other states.

Its support for the IS-free zone puts it at odds with its ally Al-Nusra, which announced its opposition to the plan over the weekend.

A contingent of six F-16s, and 300 American personnel arrived at the site last weekend, preceded by the first unmanned airstrike from Incirlik last week.

“In #Ankara today meeting with senior Turkish officials to advance our joint cooperation against #ISIL terrorists”, McGurk tweeted on his official account on Wednesday.

On the safe zone plan, the U.S. has said that IS would be replaced by moderate rebel factions in the area on the border with Turkey.

Early in the campaign against IS, US-led air strikes hit Ahrar al-Sham positions, although the group has not been targeted since. The United States and its regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey – are supporting the militants operating inside the country.