WASHINGTON: Turkey has agreed to allow the US military to launch air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants from a US air base in Incirlik, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing defence officials.
Local media in Turkey said an agreement was finalised late on Wednesday, but it could not be immediately confirmed.
The White House said President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke on Wednesday, but declined to say whether they had reached an agreement on the air base. The Pentagon also would not confirm.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama and Erdogan agreed to “deepen” cooperation in the fight against IS militants, but declined to comment on whether they had come to a deal on Incirlik. “I’m not able to talk about some of those issues because of specific operations security concerns,” Earnest said when asked about the air base.
“What we have acknowledged is that our coalition has access to a variety of bases throughout Europe and the Middle East for a variety of missions,” he said.
Turkey, which confronts IS militants directly across its southern border with Syria, has been a reluctant partner in the US-led coalition fighting the jihadists.
The US Air Force has not been allowed to fly any bombing sorties against IS from Incirlik base in southern Turkey, but uses the airfield to launch drones.
Turkey has refused to take a frontline role in military action against IS and said only the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad — not just air strikes on the radical Islamists — can bring peace. Turkey’s stance has frustrated some of its Nato allies, including the US, whose priority is fighting IS rather than Assad. The allies have urged Turkey to do more to prevent its 900km Syrian border from being used as a conduit by foreign jihadists.AFP
