Saudi deploys jets in Turkey for anti-IS fight

DUBAI: SaudiArabiahasdeployed warplanes to a Turkish airbase in order to ‘intensify’ its operations against the Islamic State group in Syria, a senior Saudi defence official has said.

“The Saudi kingdom now has a presence at Incirlik airbase in Turkey,” brigadier general Ahmed al-Assiri was quoted as saying by Al-Arabiya television late on Saturday.

“Saudi warplanes are present with their crews to intensify aerial operations along with missions launched from bases in Saudi Arabia,” Assiri said, without providing further details.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday that Saudi jets would be deployed at Incirlik, and that the two countries could participate in ground operations against IS in Syria.

Riyadh and Ankara are both opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose foreign minister last week warned that any ground intervention would “amount to aggression that must be resisted”.

Assiri said the decision to deploy an unspecified number of jets to Turkey followed a meeting in Brussels of US-led anti-IS coalition members, who decided step up their fight against the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

He stressed that Saudi had made its decision in coordination with thecoalitionandsaidthataground operation was being planned.

“There is a consensus among coalition forces on the need for ground operations and the kingdom is committed to that,” Assiri said.

Saudi warplanes are present with their crews to intensify aerial operations along with missions launched from bases in Saudi Arabia

“Military experts will meet in the coming days to finalise the details, the task force and the role to be played by each country.”

Turkey on Saturday hit Kurdish and Syrian regime positions in northern Syria, further complicating efforts to end the war just days after the US and Russia agreed on a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria within a week.

State-run news agency Anatolia said the armed forces shelled SyrianKurdish DemocraticUnion Party (PYD) targets around the townofAzaz,andalsorespondedto regime fire on a Turkish military guard post in Turkey’s southern Hatay region.

There were no further details on the nature of the Turkish strikes, which triggered alarm in Washington, but they probably involved artillery fire from tanks.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Minnigh airbase, recently taken by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia from Islamist rebels, was hit in the Turkish shelling.

Ankara considers the PYD and its YPG militia to be branches of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a decadeslong insurgency against the Turkish state.

Saturday’sshellingcameshortly after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara would, if necessary, take military action against the PYD.

“We can if necessary take the same measures in Syria as we took in Iraq and Qandil,” he said in a televised speech, referring to Turkey’s bombing campaign last year against PKK targets in their Qandil mountain stronghold in northern Iraq.

Also in the Aleppo region, which has taken centre stage in the conflict, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, launched a two-pronged attack on Tal Rifaat, one of the remaining rebel bastions north of Aleppo city, the Observatory said.

It said Tal Rifaat also came under attack in at least 20 Russian air strikes on Saturday.

The US State Department said it was concerned about the situation north of Aleppo, was working to “de-escalate tensions on all sides” and urged Turkey to halt its strikes.

“We have urged Syrian Kurdish and other forces affiliated with the YPG not to take advantage of a confused situation by seizing new territory,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

“We have also seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fires.” — AFP

Brigadier general Ahmed al-Assiri, senior Saudi defence official