Turkey allows U.S. to use air base

Agreement will enable American warplanes to attack Islamic State targets in northern Syria

Beirut — Turkey has agreed to allow the United States to use Turkish soil to launch attacks against the Islamic State, signaling a major shift in policy on the part of the once-reluctant American ally, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The decision to allow U. S. warplanes to use the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey was the culmination of nine months of negotiations between Washington and Turkey, which had resisted being drawn too deeply into the war against the Islamic State because of concerns about the direction of the Obama administration’s Syria policy.

The details of the agreement were sealed in a telephone conversation Wednesday between President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a senior U.S. administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information. A White House statement about the phone call said only that the two leaders had discussed “deepening our ongoing cooperation in the fight against ISIL, as well as common efforts to bring security and stability to Iraq and a political settlement to the conflict in Syria.” The Islamic State is also known as ISIS and ISIL.

Turkey will allow the United States to fly armed drones and planes out of Incirlik, the official said. Incirlik is located just 60 miles from the Syrian border, and its use would enable U.S. warplanes to strike more quickly and efficiently against Islamic State targets in their northern Syrian strongholds, U.S. officials have said.

The Turkish government’s previous refusal to allow the base to be used in the war against the Islamic State had triggered one of the deepest rifts in the U.S.-Turkish alliance in more than a decade, and it reflected deep-seated policy differences between Ankara and Washington over ways to address the Syrian war. Incirlik has hosted American forces under the umbrella of the NATO alliance for many years, but it remains subject to Turkish sovereignty.

In recent weeks, however, Turkey has showed signs of shifting closer to the U.S. position.

The agreement was reached amid heightened tensions between the Turkish military and the Islamic State along the Turkish- Syrian border. Hours earlier, Turkish forces clashed with Islamic State fighters near the border in their first significant ground engagement. Turkish troops fired artillery into Islamic State territory near the Kilis border crossing, killing two fighters, after Islamic State militants opened fire on Turkish troops guarding the area, according to Turkish media reports. At least one Turkish soldier was killed and two otherswere wounded, the reports said.

The shooting erupted after Turkey sought to prevent Islamic State fighters fromentering illegally into Turkey.