Turkey Widens Crackdown on Islamic State to Target Kurds Too

[Purveyor]

Source: Bloomberg

by Benjamin Harvey, Onur Ant
July 24, 2015 — 12:06 PM EDT
Updated on July 24, 2015 — 12:58 PM EDT

After striking Islamic State fighters on the Syrian border, Turkey broadened its crackdown on militant groups with nationwide raids that targeted Kurdish groups as well as jihadists.

At least 250 people were arrested in an operation that involved about 5,000 police, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. Hours earlier, the military had sent F-16 warplanes to bomb Islamic State positions in Syria in retaliation for the killing of a Turkish soldier.

The U.S. has pressed Turkey to take a more active role against Islamic State, and on Thursday Turkey made a concession, allowing use of a key base for airstrikes by American jets. Yet Friday’s roundup of militants shows how differently the two allies still view the conflict in Syria. The U.S. has given air support to the Syrian Kurds, who have close ties with the autonomy-seeking PKK group in Turkey, as they battle jihadists. Turkey considers both sides to be terrorists.

“The raids are consistent with Turkey’s public comments about viewing the PKK and ISIS as equal threats,” said Aaron Stein, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-24/turkey-widens-crackdown-on-islamic-state-to-target-kurds-too

[MisterP]

1. here comes another breeze to shift the perpetual quagmire

heck, we CREATED ISIS ("honestly, we had no IDEA that creating, funding, and arming the FSA and Sons of Iraq and telling them to get ever more ultra-Salafist could have any consequences&quot and Israel's buddy buddy with Nusra now

who knows what the configuration will be in 2017--I shudder to imagine Peter King kissing the ass of al-Baghdadi's successor and the MEQ pseudo-socialist death cult against those wicked infibulating, honor-killing Kurds

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Oh, Turkey wants to reignite its war with the Kurds now? Brilliant.

[Bosonic]

3. Turkey is currently mainly bombing Kurds with a side order of ISIS

Pro Tip: Now's not a good time for that Turkish vacation.