ABOVE: This morning, the Pentagon has a new base for launching attacks on ISIS. Turkey agreed to allow the US military to fly missions out of a key airbase at Incirlik, near the border with Syria. Holly Williams is in Istanbul.
ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish warplanes struck Islamic State group targets across the border in Syria on Friday, government officials said, a day after IS militants fired at a Turkish military outpost, killing a soldier.
The bombing is a strong tactical shift for Turkey which had long been reluctant to join the U.S.-led coalition against the extremist group.
A government official said three F-16 jets took off from Diyarbakir airbase in southeast Turkey early Friday and used smart bombs to hit three IS targets. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of government rules requiring authorization for comment, said the targets were two command centres and a gathering point of IS supporters.
Turkish media said the targets were the Syrian village of Havar, near the border, but officials would not confirm the location.
The private Dogan news agency said as many as 35 IS militants were killed in the airstrike that targeted the gathering point. The agency did not cite a source for the report and there was no official confirmation.
A government statement said the decision for the operation was taken at a security meeting on Thursday, held after five IS militants fired from Syrian territory at the outpost and prompting Turkish retaliation that killed at least one IS militant.
The official said the Turkish planes did not violate Syrian airspace.
The bombing followed a decision by Turkey this week to allow the U.S. military to use the key Incirlik air base near the Syrian border to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State, senior U.S. officials said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that Turkey has agreed to let the U.S. use the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey for military operations against Islamic State militants, “within a certain framework.”
Erdogan did not elaborate on details of the agreement, which U.S. and Turkish officials had said was made in a telephone conversation earlier this week with President Barak Obama.
The agreement follows months of U.S. appeals to Turkey and delicate negotiations over the use of Incirlik and other bases by the U.S.-led coalition – a sensitive topic in Turkey.
American officials said access to the base in southern Turkey would allow the U.S. to move more swiftly and nimbly to attack IS targets.
On Friday, Turkish police launched a major operation against terror groups including IS, carrying out simultaneous raids in Istanbul and 12 provinces and detaining more than 250 people, a government statement said. The state-run Anadolu Agency said as many as 5,000 police officers were involved in the operation which was also targeting the PKK Kurdish rebel group and the outlawed far-left group, DHKP-C.
WATCH: More than 250 detained after Turkish police raid suspected terror cells
The agency said 98 people were detained in Istanbul – 36 of them foreign nationals. It did not given details on their home countries.
One DHKP-C suspect, a woman, was killed in a gunfight with police in Istanbul, Anadolu reported.
Turkey’s moves came as the country finds itself drawn further into the conflict by a series of deadly attacks and signs of increased IS activity inside the country.
Earlier in the week, a suicide bombing blamed on IS militants killed 32 people in a town near the Syrian border.
READ MORE: Turkey blocks access to Twitter over images of Monday’s deadly bombing
Turkish officials have raised concerns that the bombing was part of a campaign of retaliation for Turkey’s recent crackdown on IS operations in the country. In the last six months, Turkish officials say, more than 500 people suspected of working with IS have been detained.
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