WASHINGTON (Web Desk) – While the US officials and lawmakers often raise questions on the security of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, a Washington-based think tank has said that American nukes stored at Turkey’s Incirlik airbase are at a risk of being captured by terrorists or other hostile forces in the Middle East.
Incirlik airbase is located about 100km away from Turkey’s border with Syria – the war torn country whose major parts are controlled by anti-government rebel militant groups or the Islamic State group.
According to media reports, the United States is currently using the Turkish airbase to target the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria and has kept some 50 nuclear weapons there.
Although the Pentagon has never confirmed the presence of the weapons at the airbase, the nukes were apparently transported to Incirlik to deter the Russian threat instead of the ISIS or any other terrorist organisation.
The recently released report of Stimson Center said that the security of the nuclear weapons is a serious matter especially after the last month’s failed military coup in Turkey which could have put the country at a civil rife.
The Turkish commander of airbase was also arrested on the suspicion of involvement in the anti-Erdogan plot.
“Whether the US could have maintained control of the weapons in the event of a protracted civil conflict in Turkey is an unanswerable question,” the think tank said, the AFP reported.
“From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey,” the report went on to add.
While raising a serious question on the security of the nukes, the report said: “There are significant safeguards in place. … But safeguards are just that, they don’t eliminate risk. In the event of a coup, we can’t say for certain that we would have been able to maintain control.”
It is also worth mentioning here that the United States had recently advised the families of the personnel deployed at the airbase to shift from the area citing security concerns.
