U.S. drone strikes from Turkey

Militants in Syria target; manned craft arrive at Incirlik base

NW Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite and Sunni pro-government fighters clash Tuesday with Islamic State militants at the front line in the eastern suburb of Ramadi.
NW Iraqi security forces backed by Shiite and Sunni pro-government fighters clash Tuesday with Islamic State militants at the front line in the eastern suburb of Ramadi.

ANKARA, Turkey -- A drone taking off from Turkey launched a strike on the Islamic State on Wednesday, a U.S. official said, as Turkey's foreign minister said U.S. aircraft had begun to arrive at a Turkish base close to the border with Syria and an "extensive" fight against the extremists would begin soon.

Also Wednesday, Syria's foreign minister said Damascus would support efforts against the Islamic State, as long as the fight is coordinated with the Syrian government.

Ending its reluctance, Turkey carried out airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria late last month and agreed to allow U.S. warplanes to use Incirlik Air Base for operations, taking a more front-line role in the U.S.-led coalition's fight against the extremists.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said a drone had launched an airstrike from Turkey for the first time Wednesday, but he provided no further details.

He said the U.S. was planning to fly manned aircraft out of Turkey but that had not yet begun.

U.S. officials had said the first armed drone missions out of Turkey began last weekend although they did not conduct airstrikes at the time.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the battle against the Islamic State from the Turkish air base would begin soon, but he didn't elaborate.

"As part of the agreement reached with the United States, we have made great strides on the technicalities of Incirlik's use and the U.S. aircraft have started to arrive," the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted him as telling reporters in Kuala Lumpur. "Soon we will together start an extensive battle against Daesh." Daesh is the Arabic acronym commonly used for the Islamic State.

The Turkish minister also told reporters that once the "effective" fight has begun, the ground would become safer for moderate opposition forces fighting the Islamic State.

Turkey also said Wednesday that it "rejects and condemns" a statement by the head of the Arab League, who criticized Turkish airstrikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

A Foreign Ministry statement on Wednesday called on Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi to "support the fight against terrorism, not terror" after he asked Turkey to respect Iraq's sovereignty and cautioned against an escalation of violence.

In recent weeks, Turkey has launched air raids against the Kurdistan Workers' Party across the border in Iraq.

Also Wednesday, coalition warplanes targeted areas held by the Islamic State in Syria, near the town of Tabqa in the northern province of Raqqa, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered, a local activist group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes killed at least five Islamic State fighters and wounded 23, including teenage fighters of the so-called Cubs of the Caliphate.

Meanwhile, Syrian's state media quoted Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem as saying in Tehran on Wednesday that the fight against the Islamic State should be coordinated with Syria.

"We are with any effort to fight Daesh as long as it is in coordination with the Syrian government; otherwise it is an infringement on Syria's sovereignty," al-Moallem was quoted as saying.

Al-Moallem was joined by Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Iran this week to discuss an Iranian initiative to end the conflict in Syria, which has killed at least 250,000 people.

According to the Lebanon-based pro-Syrian Al-Mayadeen TV, the four-point Iranian initiative calls for an immediate cease-fire, formation of a national unity government, amending the constitution to reassure ethnic and religious minorities, and holding internationally supervised elections.

Iran's deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, said his country would hand over its initiative for resolving the Syrian crisis to the United Nations soon, the official IRNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

Abdollahian said most regional players now realize that there is no military solution to the Syria crisis and would like to find a political solution. He did not elaborate on the plan.

Iran is Syria's strongest ally in the region and has backed Syrian President Bashar Assad since the country's crisis began in March 2011.

In other news, an Islamic State affiliate released a video Wednesday threatening to kill a Croatian hostage if Egyptian authorities do not release "Muslim women" held in prison within 48 hours, a day before the country plans to unveil a highly promoted new extension of the Suez Canal.

The video, circulated on social media by Islamic State supporters, shows a man wearing a yellow jumpsuit kneeling in the desert before a knife-wielding masked man in military fatigues. A black Islamic flag often used by the extremists flutters next to him. The video is identified as coming from the media arm of the Islamic State affiliate in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

Reading calmly from a note in English, the kneeling man identifies himself as Tomislav Salopek, a married, 30-year-old father of two, adding that Islamic State fighters captured him July 22. If Egyptian authorities do not act, he said, "the soldiers from Wilayet Sina will kill me." Wilayet Sina is the Arabic phrase for the Egyptian group calling itself the Sinai Province of the Islamic State.

It was not clear where the video was shot. The Associated Press could not independently verify the footage, titled "A Message to the Egyptian Government," though it was shot in the style of previous Islamic State propaganda videos in which they threaten and behead hostages.

Croatian state television read a statement on air Wednesday night saying the government was "doing all it can to promptly resolve the difficult situation," without elaborating.

Information for this article was contributed by Lolita C. Baldor, Bassem Mroue, Nasser Karimi, Brian Rohan and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/06/2015

Upcoming Events