The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavusoğlu, said on Wednesday a “comprehensive battle” would be launched against Islamic State with the arrival of US aircraft and drones.
Turkey formally approved the use of its airbases by US and coalition aircraft late last month, a major change in policy after years of reluctance in taking a frontline role against the Islamist fighters in northern Syria.
“As part of our agreement with the US we have made progress regarding the opening up of our bases, particularly Incirlik,” Çavusoğlu told state broadcaster TRT, referring to a major air base near the southern city of Adana.
“We’re seeing that manned and unmanned American planes are arriving and soon we will launch a comprehensive battle against Islamic State all together,” he said during a trip to Malaysia.
Turkey and the United States have been working on plans to provide air cover for a group of US-trained Syrian rebels and to jointly sweep Isis fighters from a strip of northern Syria stretching about 50 miles along the Turkish border.
Diplomats familiar with the plans say cutting off Isis’s access to the border, over which foreign fighters and supplies have flowed, could be a game-changer in the fight against the insurgents.
But there are major challenges.
Washington said on Tuesday it had indications some of the rebels trained by its military were captured by fighters from al-Qaida’s Syria wing, al-Nusra Front, underscoring the vulnerability of a group thought to number fewer than 60 who only deployed to the battlefield in recent weeks.
Isis has seized large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in its drive to create an Islamic caliphate.
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