Bombing of Isis positions is tactical shift after deadly terrorist attacks and comes as Turkey allows US-led coalition to use its southern airbases

Turkish fighter jets have struck Islamic State targets in Syria and the government has rounded up hundreds of suspected militants in a coordinated crackdown, as the country deployed military force for the first time against the terrorist group.



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The bombing is a major tactical shift for Turkey, which has long been reluctant to follow the US-led coalition in taking military action against Isis.



The office of the acting prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, said Turkish F-16 warplanes based in Diyarbakır had attacked three Isis targets with guided bombs at dawn on Friday, including what it described as the group’s headquarters and an assembly point. Nine Isis fighters were killed and 12 injured in the attacks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Late on Friday, local broadcaster NTV reported that Turkish fighter jets had re-entered Syrian airspace to launch a further attack on Isis targets as night fell.

A Turkish official could not confirm the report of the evening attack, although another broadcaster, CNN Turk, also reported that jets had again entered Syrian airspace.

Turkey is also to allow the US-led coalition to use its Incirlik airbase and other bases in the south of the country to conduct strikes against Isis, the foreign ministry said on Friday. The announcement marks a reversal of policy that follows a cross-border attack by the militants that killed a Turkish soldier, and a suicide bombing this week that killed 32 people in the southern province of Suruç, just a few miles from the Syrian border.



It remains unclear when the Incirlik airbase will be opened to the US, but the Turkish media said that it would be “very soon”, with some predicting the first allied warplanes would take off in August. Additional airbases in the nearby cities of Diyarbakır and Batman will be opened to allied planes for emergencies.

The US military flatly denied reports in the Turkish media that the deal with the US included the establishment of a no-fly zone in northern Syria, a longstanding demand of the Turkish government which the US had resisted.

There is “no change in that position”, Colonel Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for the US forces in the Middle East, told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.



Ryder’s comment tempered speculation that the airbase agreement signals a shift in US policy towards attacking the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, as many Republican hawks and Syrian rebels desire.

The air strikes and raids come as a wave of deadly violence threatens to draw Turkey further into the Syrian quagmire.



Tension has also risen to dangerous levels in the predominantly Kurdish south-east, where many have long accused the Turkish government, led by the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of directly supporting Isis against the Kurdish struggle in Syria, a charge Ankara vehemently denies.

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Davutoğlu said on Friday that the detention of almost 300 people linked to Isis and the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) in raids across the country was just the beginning of a wider operation.

He told reporters: “In yesterday’s security meetings, we brought together the relevant security units and we decided on precautions to take. The operations that began today are not singular, they are part of a process.”

A statement said the raids were conducted “without distinction” against all terrorist groups in 13 provinces.

It read: “The state of the Turkish republic is adamant on fighting all terrorism without distinction as it has always done, be it the terrorist organisation of Daesh [Isis], the terrorist organisation of the PKK or any other international terrorist organisation.”

Late on Friday night there were unconfirmed reports that Turkish warplanes had launched attacks on PKK camps in northern Iraq.

In Istanbul, several Isis members were detained, many of whom are reported to be foreigners. According to the Turkish daily Milliyet, ammunition, weapons and molotov cocktails were seized in several cities during the operation. The prime minister’s office said 37 of those taken into custody were foreigners.

Friday morning’s air attacks followed the decision to open the Incirlik base for Turkey’s western allies. Turkey, a Nato member, had long resisted calls from Barack Obama’s administration to allow the coalition to use airbases in the country as staging grounds for air raids.

Erdoğan confirmed the agreement, which he said allowed for operations “within a certain framework”, but did not elaborate on its details. The Turkish media, however, reported that the establishment of a buffer zone inside Syria had been agreed.

The daily newspaper Hürriyet, citing senior Turkish sources, said the deal included a partial no-fly zone covering a 90km (56-mile) strip between the Syrian towns of Marea and Jarabulus to the east that would be approximately 50km deep. If established, Syrian warplanes would be prohibited from entering the no-fly zone and shot down if they did.

But Obama’s envoy for the fight against Isis, the retired general John Allen, who is said to have been critical in securing access to Incirlik, denied any no-fly zone would be created. He told reporters at the Aspen Security Forum: “It was not part of the discussion.”

Davutoğlu, when asked if the agreement with the US to use Incirlik base included the long-time Turkish demand of creating a safe haven in northern Syria, said it took into account Turkey’s considerations. The remarks fell short of an official confirmation, but suggest that Ankara and Washington may have worked a compromise deal that allows for a limited no-fly zone near the border.

The Turkish government has long been pushing for a no-fly zone running alongside its border inside Syria, but has until now not been successful at convincing its western allies, headed by the US, to establish a secure strip inside the neighbouring country.

Some critics had accused the Turkish government of wanting to establish a buffer zone in northern Syria to weaken the growing Kurdish autonomy in the region.

The sources cited by the newspaper said the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union party (PYD) and the Kurdish militias of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) would not be targeted unless “they threatened Turkish borders” or tried to “change the demographic” in Syria.



The leftist and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) criticised the proposed buffer zone as an attempt by Ankara to weaken the Kurdish opposition in Syria, warning that such a move would endanger the continuing peace talks between the Turkish government and the PKK. The HDP also described Friday’s anti-terror raids as an attempt to “whitewash the AKP’s failed Syria policies”.

It said in a press statement: “Why have the perpetrators [of the bombings in Suruç and Diyarbakır] not been detained? Why have there not been operations against Isis sleeper cells in Turkey? How could [the government] be believable in its fight against Isis when the pro-government media are still using the most abject hate speech against our party, while they cannot say a thing against Isis?”

Davutoğlu underlined that Damascus had not been informed about Turkey’s new security strategy. He said: “Decisions concerning Turkey are made in Ankara. But we informed our allies.”