Turkey strikes ISIS targets in Syria
F-16 jets use smart bombs to hit 3 ISIS targets; Turkish police raid Islamic State and Kurdish militant group locations in Istanbul in 26 districts
A government official says three F-16 jets took off from Diyarbakir airbase in southeast Turkey early Friday and used smart bombs to hit three ISIS targets across the Turkish border province of Kilis. The official said the targets were two command centers and a gathering point of ISIS supporters.
A government statement said the decision for the operation was taken at a security meeting on Thursday, held after ISIS militants fired from Syrian territory at a Turkish military outpost, killing a soldier.
The official said the Turkish planes had not violated Syrian airspace.
The bombing followed a decision by Turkey this week to allow the US military to use the Incirlik air base near the border with Syria to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State.
The agreement, which President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed in a phone call Wednesday, follows months of US appeals to Turkey and delicate negotiations over the use of Incirlik and other bases by the US-led coalition, a sensitive topic in Turkey.
American officials said access to the base in southern Turkey would allow the US to move more swiftly and nimbly to attack ISIS targets.
Turkish police launched raids targetting Islamic State and Kurdish militants in 13 provinces across Turkey on Friday, the prime minister's office said, saying it was determined to fight all "terrorist" groups "without distinction". Raids in Istanbul were carried out in 26 districts by 5,000 police officers.
Police said in a statement that 251 people had so far been detained in the simultaneous raids.
Turkey's moves came as the country finds itself drawn further into the conflict by a series of deadly attacks and signs of increased ISIS activity inside the country.
The Prime Minister's Office said on Thursday that Turkey will take any necessary measures to protect public order and national security following attacks by Islamic State and Kurdish militants.
It has been hit by a wave of violence in the largely Kurdish southeast after a suspected Islamic State suicide bombing killed 32 people, many of them Kurds, in a town on the Syrian border.
