US Draws Turkey into Syrian War

Washington wants to intensify airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria; but it wants to make a deal with Turkey first. The deal’s terms would include allowing American aircraft to be launched from the Turkish base in Incirlik to attack the militants; Turkish special task forces would enter Syrian territory by the city of Kobani, where Kurds are fighting against the Islamists. This offer meets Ankara’s wish to create a buffer area along the border with Syria and help Bashar al-Assad’s enemies. However, the Pentagon has delayed the agreement with Turkey, fearing strikes from Syrian air defense.

Washington and Ankara have not been able to agree on a strategy to fight the Islamic State group. The U.S. plan consists of involving the Turkish army in the military action unfolding around the Syrian town of Kobani, near the border with Turkey. Peshmerga, Kurdish rebels, fight against the Islamists in these combat operations.

The offer discussed by the two members of the North Atlantic alliance consists of allowing American aircraft to be launched from the Turkish airfield in Incirlik to carry out strikes against Islamist positions, who now hold the territory in Syria along the Turkish border, from the north of Aleppo to Kobani. In their turn, Turkish special task forces must advance into the combat area. Its task, as the Washington Post reports, is to direct American aircraft to the targets and help Syrian opponents of President Assad to regroup and consolidate in the controlled regions.

The offer, at least partially, meets Ankara’s long-held wish to create a safe buffer area along its entire 500-mile border with Syria. At the same time, it will boost the confidence of the pro-Western Syrian rebels, who are weakened by their defeat at the front.

In exchange, the United States gets an opportunity to drastically reduce the time needed for target flights within Syria. Currently, American bombers and missile drones are launched from an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, covering a distance of over 1,000 miles.

“The permission to launch aircraft from the airfield in Incirlik is extremely important,” said a U.S. administration official, who preferred to remain anonymous. So far, surveillance aircraft aim American pilots at targets, as well as Syrian amateur spotters armed with cell phones. If the plan is implemented, Washington will have to budget more resources. This means more planes and more money.

The offer does not include creation of a traditional no-fly zone. This would require permanent patrol fighters in the air. Their task would be to keep foreign planes from an area about 100 miles long and 20 miles wide. This option could result in a larger scale conflict.

U.S. airstrikes in the proposed corridor to the northeast of Aleppo increase the probability of clashes between American and Syrian aircraft. Currently, Syrian aircraft regularly bomb the rebels in the city. However, many officials in the White House and the Pentagon are suspicious of Turkish President Recip Erdogan, and don’t want to get involved in a direct confrontation with Assad.

The White House and the Pentagon said that they are considering different options of ensuring the security of the Turkish border with Syria, but are not yet ready to carry out a specific plan. Department of Defense spokesman Colonel Steve Warren made his department’s position quite clear: “Right now, we don’t believe a buffer zone is the best way to relieve the humanitarian crisis there in northern Syria.”

According to the media, other NATO members are uninterested in Ankara’s plan to create a buffer zone with air defense as a key component. Results of the talks between Recip Erdogan and President Vladimir Putin on December 4 have been thoroughly analyzed by the press in the Middle East and the West. The Lebanese newspaper Daily Star wrote that the parties tried to find common ground on the Syrian issue. The stumbling block was the evaluation of the Assad regime.