Voice of America: US, Turkey Differ Over How to Fight IS From Incirlik Air Base
Differences have emerged between Washington and Ankara over how to use a Turkish air base near the Syrian border in the fight against Islamic State militants.
Ankara’s decision in recent days to open the Incirlik airbase to U.S. jets was reportedly described as a “game changer” by one U.S. official in the battle against IS. Incirlik is located 110 kilometers from the Syrian border, meaning U.S. jets could reach their targets much faster than from the locations they've been using. Anti-IS forces mainly operate from Bahrain, Jordan and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.
For months, Ankara resisted Washington’s calls to open Incirlik because of differences over fighting the Jihadists and the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.
WNU Editor: The U.S. focus is to stop the Islamic State .... Turkey's focus is to stop Kurdish forces. These differences should have been taken care of before their joint announcement .... but in the rush to make this announcement no one bothered to hash out the details. As a result .... the U.S. is now in limbo and as far as the Turkish government is concerned .... they have a green light from Washington to go after the Kurds. This is a textbook example on how NOT to do diplomacy.
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