ANKARA (Web Desk) – Turkish air force jets have carried out fresh strikes against “Islamic State” (IS) positions in Syria and also hit Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.
It was the second successive night that Turkey had targeted IS, the BBC reported.
The air strikes follow a week which saw a bomb attack blamed on the terror group that killed 32 people in the Turkish town of Suruc, and border clashes with the militant group.
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The Iraq strikes were the first time Turkey had attacked the Kurdistan Workers’ Party since a 2013 truce.
The group, also known as the PKK, has been fighting Turkey for an autonomous homeland for the Kurds for decades.
The PKK’s military wing said it killed two Turkish police officers on Wednesday. The group claims the men had collaborated with IS in the bombing in Suruc, which targeted left-wing activists.
A government statement issued on Saturday said the air force had hit PKK shelters, bunkers, storage facilities and other “logistic points” in northern Iraq, including the Qandil mountains where the PKK’s high command is based.
However, it did not give details of what the jets had targeted in their attacks on IS in Syria.
Turkey’s military had also shelled IS and PKK positions from across the Turkish border, the statement said.
Turkey was “determined to take every step to ensure the peace and security of our people”, it added.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said the strikes against IS are part of a broad “process”.
Turkey arrested hundreds of suspected IS supporters on Friday, and has also said it will let the US use a key airbase to attack IS targets.
Read more: Turkey agrees to give its airbase to US to strike ISIS
Fresh raids by the security forces targeting suspected IS and PKK members are reported to have taken place early on Saturday in several Turkish provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara, Konya and Manisa.
The air strikes on the PKK bases in Iraqi Kurdistan follow a gradual increase in tension between the Turkish government and the Kurdish movement in the run-up to the elections.
The two sides have been engaged in a peace process that started in early 2013 and a ceasefire has held for the best part of two years. Turkish officials say tension has risen because the PKK leadership has refused to disarm and has started to carry out attacks against security forces. However, the PKK accuses the government of publicly abandoning the peace process, while adopting a nationalist discourse and cracking down on Kurdish activists.
The Turkish government has faced criticism at home and abroad for not doing enough against IS, despite being part of the international coalition fighting it.
Friday’s air strikes marked the first time Turkey has confirmed air strikes against targets in Syria since IS began its advance through Iraq and Syria in 2013.
“This is a process,” Mr Davutoglu said. “It is not limited to one day or to one region. The slightest movement threatening Turkey will be retaliated against in the strongest way possible.”
He said Turkey was prepared to send troops across the border into Syria “if there was such a need”.
The agreement to let the US use the Incirlik airbase, following months of negotiations, was finalised in a phone call between President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It could allow the US to step up air strikes against IS, as it is closer to northern Syria and Iraq than the Gulf, which currently serves as a launch-pad for bombing missions.
Mr Erdogan said the US-led coalition against IS would be allowed to use the base “within a certain framework” – but did not specify what this would be.
‘ISIL-free zone’
Turkey and the United States have agreed on a military action plan with the objective of clearing the Turkish-Syrian border of terrorists in what the two countries have called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-free zone.
Read more: Obama and Erdogan join hands against ‘foreign fighters’ crossing into Syria
This action plan was part of a comprehensive deal between the two allies which has been seen a “a game changer” in the fight against ISIL by the United States administration, whose warplanes will be able to use this region’s most strategic military base in İncirlik as part of its aerial campaign against terrorists’ positions.
The ISIL-free zone will be 98 kilometers long and 40 kilometers wide and situated between the Mare-Jarablus line. A good portion of this area is currently under ISIL control, and Turkey already vowed it would not tolerate the jihadists posing a threat to the Turkish border.
Sources emphasized they have opted to call it the “ISIL-free zone” instead of a “security or safe zone” because the objections raised by Washington, who refrained from giving the wrong message to the Syrian regime, as well as Russia and Iran.
The idea of the name is to show that the main objective of this Turkish-American joint fight is eliminating ISIL in this particular area and not fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
