Turkey Opens Key Air Base for U.S. Strikes on ISIS

Tur­key will open up In­cir­lik Air Force Base, about 250 miles from the Syr­i­an city of Raqqa, to U.S. and co­ali­tion strike op­er­a­tions against the Is­lam­ic State, ac­cord­ing to mul­tiple for­eign news out­lets. The move puts anti-IS­IS air­craft, which had been fly­ing some 1,200 miles to strike Is­lam­ic State po­s­i­tions, much closer to the vari­ous battle­grounds, in­clud­ing Raqqa, the ef­fect­ive cap­it­al of the Is­lam­ic State in Syr­ia.

“You can get there quick, you can stay longer and you can carry more [bombs],” said T. Mi­chael Mose­ley, a re­tired Air Force gen­er­al who was the head of U.S. Air Forces Cent­ral Com­mand dur­ing the 2003 Amer­ic­an-led in­va­sion of Ir­aq. “It’s a good thing.” Mose­ley also pre­dicted polit­ic­al be­ne­fits from Tur­key’s de­cision to in­crease its par­ti­cip­a­tion in the fight against IS­IS. “The biggest thing is you’ve got a co­ali­tion part­ner that’s now vis­ible “¦ who hap­pens to be a Sunni state [and] hap­pens to be a NATO part­ner,” he said. On Tues­day, White House and DOD of­fi­cials ini­tially de­clined to con­firm or deny the re­ports. Pentagon spokes­per­son Laura Seal said, “The United States and Tur­key have held on­go­ing con­sulta­tions about ways we can fur­ther our joint counter-ISIL ef­forts. We have de­cided to fur­ther deep­en our co­oper­a­tion in the fight against ISIL, our com­mon ef­forts to pro­mote se­cur­ity and sta­bil­ity in Ir­aq, and our work to bring about a polit­ic­al set­tle­ment to the con­flict in Syr­ia. Due to op­er­a­tion­al se­cur­ity I don’t have fur­ther de­tails to share at this time.” But later in the day, Obama ad­min­is­tra­tion of­fi­cials con­firmed that manned and un­manned U.S. war­planes will carry out strikes from the base, with one seni­or ad­min­is­tra­tion of­fi­cial de­scrib­ing the de­vel­op­ment as a “game changer.” It’s a shift long sought by Wash­ing­ton, which has been try­ing to get Tur­key’s per­mis­sion to launch strike mis­sions from In­cir­lik ever since the air cam­paign began last Au­gust. The Pentagon has long op­er­ated from the Turk­ish air base, but has been denied ap­prov­al to do more against IS­IS than sup­port U.S. and NATO air­craft passing through the re­gion. A month after the air­strikes began, then-De­fense Sec­ret­ary Chuck Hagel paid a vis­it to Tur­key; the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment main­tained a low pro­file, clos­ing nearly every event to the U.S. press trav­el­ing with the sec­ret­ary. At the time, nearly 50 Turk­ish cit­izens had been taken host­age by IS­IS in north­ern Ir­aq. Tur­key ne­go­ti­ated their re­lease later that month. The agree­ment that opened the base to strike mis­sions is a few weeks old, the Turk­ish news­pa­per Hür­ri­yet re­por­ted. “The two sides agreed in prin­ciple about the use of the Ä°ncir­lik base in Adana dur­ing talks on Ju­ly 7-8,” it said. But a re­cent ter­ror at­tack in­side Tur­key may have ad­ded a cer­tain ur­gency to Ank­ara’s re­sponse to the Is­lam­ic State. On Monday, 31 people were killed when a bomb ex­ploded in the Turk­ish city of Suruc. Turk­ish au­thor­it­ies have blamed the at­tack on a stu­dent, Seyh Ab­dur­rah­man Alagoz, whom they said has ties to the Is­lam­ic State. On Tues­day, Pres­id­ent Obama spoke with Turk­ish Pres­id­ent Re­cep Tayyip Er­dogan over the phone, where he “con­veyed con­dol­ences on be­half of the Amer­ic­an people to the fam­il­ies of the vic­tims, and the two lead­ers af­firmed that the United States and Tur­key stand united in the fight against ter­ror­ism. The lead­ers also dis­cussed ef­forts to in­crease co­oper­a­tion to stem the flow of for­eign fight­ers and se­cure Tur­key’s bor­der with Syr­ia,” ac­cord­ing to a White House press state­ment. Sta­ging fight­er and at­tack air­craft in Tur­key would greatly re­duce the dis­tance they need to fly to reach a tar­get, said Dav­id Dep­tula, a re­tired Air Force lieu­ten­ant gen­er­al who was the prin­cip­al at­tack plan­ner for the Desert Storm air cam­paign against Ir­aq in 1991 and is now dean of the Mitchell In­sti­tute for Aerospace Stud­ies. Many Amer­ic­an and co­ali­tion war­planes now fly as many as 1,200 miles from bases out­side Ir­aq or air­craft car­ri­ers in the Per­sian Gulf to tar­gets in North­ern Ir­aq and Syr­ia. IS­IS strong­holds, which have been the tar­gets of air­strikes, are much closer to Tur­key. “What it does is it dra­mat­ic­ally re­duces the dis­tance” to tar­gets, Dep­tula said. “It means that with the same num­ber of air­craft avail­able that ex­ist today, the num­ber of strike sorties or mis­sions that can be flown can be dra­mat­ic­ally in­creased prob­ably on the or­der of two to three times what we’re fly­ing today.” Basing strike air­craft in Tur­key also re­duces the de­mand on aer­i­al tankers, which must re­fuel gas-hungry fight­er jets mul­tiple times when they come from oth­er bases south of Ir­aq. They plans can also fly over tar­gets for longer amounts of time. The In­cir­lik base has played a crit­ic­al role in vari­ous pre­vi­ous U.S.-led cam­paigns, in­clud­ing against Sad­dam Hus­sein and the Taliban in Afgh­anistan. Molly O’Toole con­trib­uted to this re­port.

“You can get there quick, you can stay longer, and you can carry more [bombs],” said T. Mi­chael Mose­ley, a re­tired Air Force gen­er­al who was the head of U.S. Air Forces Cent­ral Com­mand dur­ing the 2003 Amer­ic­an-led in­va­sion of Ir­aq. “It’s a good thing.”

Mose­ley also pre­dicted polit­ic­al be­ne­fits from Tur­key’s de­cision to in­crease its par­ti­cip­a­tion in the fight against IS­IS. “The biggest thing is you’ve got a co­ali­tion part­ner that’s now vis­ible “¦ who hap­pens to be a Sunni state [and] hap­pens to be a NATO part­ner,” he said.

On Tues­day, White House and De­fense De­part­ment of­fi­cials ini­tially de­clined to con­firm or deny the re­ports. Pentagon spokes­wo­man Laura Seal said, “The United States and Tur­key have held on­go­ing con­sulta­tions about ways we can fur­ther our joint counter-ISIL ef­forts. We have de­cided to fur­ther deep­en our co­oper­a­tion in the fight against ISIL, our com­mon ef­forts to pro­mote se­cur­ity and sta­bil­ity in Ir­aq, and our work to bring about a polit­ic­al set­tle­ment to the con­flict in Syr­ia. Due to op­er­a­tion­al se­cur­ity I don’t have fur­ther de­tails to share at this time.”

But later in the day, Obama ad­min­is­tra­tion of­fi­cials con­firmed that manned and un­manned U.S. war­planes will carry out strikes from the base, with one seni­or ad­min­is­tra­tion of­fi­cial de­scrib­ing the de­vel­op­ment as a “game changer.”

It’s a shift long sought by Wash­ing­ton, which has been try­ing to get Tur­key’s per­mis­sion to launch strike mis­sions from In­cir­lik ever since the air cam­paign began last Au­gust. The Pentagon has long op­er­ated from the Turk­ish air base, but has been denied ap­prov­al to do more against IS­IS than sup­port U.S. and NATO air­craft passing through the re­gion.

A month after the air­strikes began, then-De­fense Sec­ret­ary Chuck Hagel paid a vis­it to Tur­key; the Turk­ish gov­ern­ment main­tained a low pro­file, clos­ing nearly every event to the U.S. press trav­el­ing with the sec­ret­ary. At the time, nearly 50 Turk­ish cit­izens had been taken host­age by IS­IS in north­ern Ir­aq. Tur­key ne­go­ti­ated their re­lease later that month.

The agree­ment that opened the base to strike mis­sions is a few weeks old, the Turk­ish news­pa­per Hür­ri­yet re­por­ted. “The two sides agreed in prin­ciple about the use of the Ä°ncir­lik base in Adana dur­ing talks on Ju­ly 7-8,” it said.

But a re­cent ter­ror at­tack in­side Tur­key may have ad­ded a cer­tain ur­gency to Ank­ara’s re­sponse to the Is­lam­ic State. On Monday, 31 people were killed when a bomb ex­ploded in the Turk­ish city of Suruc. Turk­ish au­thor­it­ies have blamed the at­tack on a stu­dent, Seyh Ab­dur­rah­man Alagoz, who they said has ties to the Is­lam­ic State.

On Tues­day, Pres­id­ent Obama spoke with Turk­ish Pres­id­ent Re­cep Tayyip Er­dogan over the phone, and he “con­veyed con­dol­ences on be­half of the Amer­ic­an people to the fam­il­ies of the vic­tims, and the two lead­ers af­firmed that the United States and Tur­key stand united in the fight against ter­ror­ism. The lead­ers also dis­cussed ef­forts to in­crease co­oper­a­tion to stem the flow of for­eign fight­ers and se­cure Tur­key’s bor­der with Syr­ia,” ac­cord­ing to a White House press state­ment.

Sta­ging fight­er and at­tack air­craft in Tur­key would greatly re­duce the dis­tance they need to fly to reach a tar­get, said Dav­id Dep­tula, a re­tired Air Force lieu­ten­ant gen­er­al who was the prin­cip­al at­tack plan­ner for the Desert Storm air cam­paign against Ir­aq in 1991 and is now dean of the Mitchell In­sti­tute for Aerospace Stud­ies.

Many Amer­ic­an and co­ali­tion war­planes now fly as many as 1,200 miles from bases out­side Ir­aq or air­craft car­ri­ers in the Per­sian Gulf to tar­gets in North­ern Ir­aq and Syr­ia. IS­IS strong­holds, which have been the tar­gets of air­strikes, are much closer to Tur­key.

“What it does is it dra­mat­ic­ally re­duces the dis­tance” to tar­gets, Dep­tula said. “It means that with the same num­ber of air­craft avail­able that ex­ist today, the num­ber of strike sorties or mis­sions that can be flown can be dra­mat­ic­ally in­creased prob­ably on the or­der of two to three times what we’re fly­ing today.”

Basing strike air­craft in Tur­key also re­duces the de­mand on aer­i­al tankers, which must re­fuel gas-hungry fight­er jets mul­tiple times when they come from oth­er bases south of Ir­aq. They can also fly over tar­gets for longer amounts of time.

The In­cir­lik base has played a crit­ic­al role in vari­ous pre­vi­ous U.S.-led cam­paigns, in­clud­ing against Sad­dam Hus­sein and the Taliban in Afgh­anistan.

Molly O’Toole con­trib­uted to this re­port.