Turkey and the United States may have agreed on the use of the Incirlik Air Base near the southern city of Adana against the Islamic State in Syria, but the deal appears to have some snags, especially with regard to US assistance to Syrian Kurds fighting IS. This unresolved problem is considered one of the reasons why Incirlik has not been used yet in active operations by the US-led coalition, despite the urgency of the fight against IS and other groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra.
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said earlier this week that armed drone missions were conducted out of the base last weekend, but added that none of the drones had launched airstrikes. Unarmed drones had already been flying out of the base. There are reports that the United States is delaying the use of manned aircraft from the base because it needs to set up search-and-rescue capabilities first.
