United States, Turkey complete plans for ‘comprehensive’ offensive against ISIL

The United States and Turkey will launch a “comprehensive” air campaign to flush Daesh fighters from a designated safe zone in northern Syria bordering Turkey, Reuters reported.

“Soon we will start this operation, comprehensive operations, against Daesh”, Çavuşoğlu told Reuters in an interview.

Cavusoglu said the air strikes are also intended to send a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad and pressure his administration to come to the negotiating table and seek a political solution for the civil war that has gone on for four years.

“We continue to engage in conversations with Turkey about how to deepen that conversation in a way to help advance our strategy to counter ISIL but also in a way that would improve the security situation along Turkey’s long border with Syria“, Earnest said, arguing that he is “cot contradicting” what Çavuşoğlu said.

The air campaign will also provide cover for what the U.S. says are moderate Syrian rebels.

Ankara is concerned that the PYD and its allies aim to unite Kurdish cantons in northern Syria and fear those ambitions will stoke separatist sentiment among its own Kurds.

“After almost 10 months of negotiations, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies Turkey and the United States agreed to cooperate on fighting ISIS jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and are discussing ways to broaden their alliance”. The envoy said the US has a team of military professionals in Turkey, working with the Turkish military to work out the arrangements and the mechanisms for joint air campaign.

The Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front said late last month it had detained some of a first group of less than 60 rebels, weeks after they were deployed, and warned others to abandon the program, highlighting their vulnerability.

Saying that F-16 fighter jets were flying regularly from Incirlik base in Turkey to support the U.S. led coalition’s anti-Daesh efforts in Syria and Iraq, Killea said that the armed Remotely Piloted Aircraft, strike fighters and aerial refueling tankers originating from Turkey had combined to produce devastating results against Daesh targets.

“We are very happy to see that Iran has been normalising its diplomatic ties with many Western countries…”