What's US really doing at Turkey's Incirlik Air Base?
It is still not clear what agreement has been reached on the use of the Incirlik Air Base by anti-IS coalition planes.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an Aug. 5 statement, “We have come a long way on the opening of the Incirlik Air Base. Turkey and the United States will soon launch a comprehensive war against [the Islamic State (IS)]." The news made headlines the world over.
Seven hours later, a statement from the US Department of Defense reported a “deadly attack from the base in southern Turkey” on IS targets near Raqqa. This attack was most likely carried out by an armed US unmanned aerial vehicle that was already deployed at Incirlik.
A foreign journalist asked, “Has it begun?” My reply was: “If you mean armed UAVs, then, yes. But if you mean [whether] the US combat planes are using Incirlik for operational missions, not yet.”
The true blow to IS will come from coalition warplanes led by the United States taking off from Incirlik on combat missions. The strategic bargaining between the United States and Turkey on this issue is still going on, although both parties appear to be tired.
