Special to WorldTribune.com
Leaders within the United States military were said to be “outraged” when Turkey launched air strikes against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq only hours after Ankara reached a deal with the U.S. to allow use of a key air base in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
A U.S. military source said American special forces stationed in northern Iraq who were training Kurdish Peshmerga troops had almost no warning before Turkey launched air strikes on Kurdish PKK forces.
“We had no idea who the Turkish fighters were, their call signs, what frequencies they were using, their altitude or what they were squawking [to identify the jets on radar],” the source said.
The source told Fox News that a Turkish officer entered the allied headquarters for the air war against ISIL and “announced that the strike would begin in 10 minutes and he needed all allied jets flying above Iraq to move south of Mosul immediately. We were outraged.”
The U.S. military source said that Turkish military officials asked the U.S.-led coalition officers to reveal the trainers’ specific whereabouts to avoid bombing them, but the officers refused.
“No way we were giving that up,” the source said. “If one of our guys got hit, the Turks would blame us. We gave the Turks large grids to avoid bombing. We could not risk having U.S. forces hit by Turkish bombs.”
Ankara announced on July 24 that it would allow the U.S. to use Incirlik air base for strikes against ISIL in Syria.
Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization and as much of, if not more, of a threat as ISIL.
“There is no difference between PKK and Daesh (ISIL),” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
The situation between the U.S. and Turkey may be getting ever more tense as the U.S. is launching a partnership with Syria’s Kurds, the YPG, who are allies with the PKK.
If Turkey continues to attack the PKK while not trying to provoke ISIL, “it will leave the U.S. without a Syria strategy,” geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer told Business Insider recently.
“Access to Incirlik airbase matters, but the additional bombing it enables will only help contain ISIL, not roll it back,” Bremmer added. “And it will leave Washington without the improved relations with Ankara that the Obama administration is hoping for.”
U.S. military ‘outraged’ by Turkey’s attacks on Kurdish forces after anti-ISIL deal added by World Tribune on
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