ISISTurkey, U.S. to create “ISIS-free zone” along Syria-Turkey border
In what should be regarded as a significant victory for Turkey’s approach to the conflict in Syria, Turkey and the United States have agreed on a plan create an “ISIS free” strip inside Syria along the Turkey-Syria border. The deal will see Turkey drawn more deeply into Syria’s civil war and increase the intensity of the U.S. air strikes against ISIS. American officials told the New York Times that the United States would work with Turkey and Syrian rebel fighters to clear a 25-mile-deep strip of land near the border, which would constitute an ISIS-free zone and a safe haven for Syrian refugees.
In what should be regarded as a significant victory for Turkey’s approach to the conflict in Syria, Turkey and the United States have agreed on a plan create an “ISIS free” strip inside Syria along the Turkey-Syria border. The deal will see Turkey drawn more deeply into Syria’s civil war and increase the intensity of the U.S. air strikes against ISIS.
American officials told the New York Times that the United States would work with Turkey and Syrian rebel fighters to clear a strip of land near the border, up to 25-mile deep, which would constitute an ISIS-free zone and a safe haven for Syrian refugees.
“Details remain to be worked out, but what we are talking about with Turkey is cooperating to support partners on the ground in northern Syria who are countering ISIL,” a senior Obama administration official said, using another term for the Islamic State. “The goal is to establish an ISIL-free zone and ensure greater security and stability along Turkey’s border with Syria.”
Late last week, for the first time since the beginning of the war in February 2011, Turkish jets bombed ISIS targets inside Syria – but they also bombed positions of the Syrian Kurds, which are trained and armed by the United States to fight ISIS.
Turkey and the United States last Friday announced that the United States would be allowed to use a major Turkish air base in southern Turkey for bombing raids against ISIS (“Game changer: Turkey allows U.S. to use of Incirlik air base for attacks on ISIS,” HSNW, 24 July 2015)
Turkey has long demanded that a safe haven inside Syria, along the 500-mile order between the two countries, be created so Syrian refugees escaping the Assad regime’s would have a safe place to say where they would be protected from Assad’s ground and air forces. In the absence of such a safe haven inside Syria, more than two million Syrians have escaped into Turkey, where they now live in tent cities.
Turkey conditioned its participation in the fight against ISIS on the creation of this safe haven.
The New York Times reports that it is not yet clear how the safe haven will be protected, who will police it, and whether it will be declared a no-fly zone patrolled by coalition planes.
