Istanbul: Turkey’s foreign minister today said Ankara “has plans” for a joint operation with the United States to end the presence of Islamic State militants along any part of its border with Syria.
Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu told the state-run news agency Anatolia that IS militants still had a presence on some of Turkey’s border with northern Syria. “We have certain plans to put an end to the control that IS is still exercising on a zone of our frontier,” he said, without specifying on the nature of the plans but saying they would be jointly implemented with the US.
“When these plans are completed, our operations will continue with more and more intensity. You will see this in the days to come,” he added. US Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview with CNN late Tuesday that “we are entering an operation with the Turks” to shut off 98 kilometres (61 miles) of border still not secure from IS. Their comments come amid growing momentum for coordinated international action against IS after the Paris attacks last week claimed by the extremist Islamist group which killed 129 and injured 350.
