(MENAFN- Arab Times) The Turkish government has given its formal approval for the United States to use the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey for raids against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria, a foreign ministry official said Wednesday. "The cabinet has signed the decree," the official told AFP, without specifying when the authorisation was given.
"The (Incirlik) air base can be used (by the US against IS) anytime." The accord came after months of tough negotiations between the two NATO allies that saw Washington grow increasingly frustrated over Turkey's reluctance to play a robust role in the international coalition against jihadists. The decree signed by the cabinet authorises the implementation of an agreement between Turkey and the United States on the base that was thrashed out during a visit to Ankara by US presidential envoy John Allen earlier this month.
The cabinet has agreed to "implement elements agreed between Turkey and the United States," said the official. "The basis is there for the use of the facility," the official added. The head of one of Iraq's fiercest Shiite militias called the US-led coalition's campaign against Islamic State ineffective and accused Washington of lacking the will to uproot radical Sunni jihadis controlling large swathes of Iraq and Syria. Qais al-Khazali, leader of Iranian-backed paramilitary group Asaib Ahl al-Haq, said the anti-IS campaign had failed because of an American agenda to redraw the map of the Middle East along new borders.
"We believe the United States of America does not want to resolve the crisis but rather wants to manage the crisis," he told Reuters in an interview. "It does not want to end DAESH (Islamic State). It wants to exploit DAESH to achieve its projects in Iraq and in the region. The American project in Iraq is to repartition the region." Khazali said the US-led coalition had failed to ramp up the number of air strikes over time as he said it had pledged to do.
Back-to-back suicide attacks targeting Iraqi security forces near the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi on Wednesday killed at least 12 troops, officials said, as the government pressed on with efforts to reclaim territory under the extremists' control. The suicide bombers rammed explosivesladen Humvees into forces deployed outside of the University of Ramadi complex, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press. The officials € one with the Iraqi army, the other with the country's elite counterterrorism forces € also said that eight Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the bombing. Shortly afterward, clashes erupted southwest of Ramadi, killing one soldier and wounding eight others, the officials said, while 14 militants were also killed.
Iraqi government forces recaptured the university, located 5 kms (3 miles) south of Ramadi, from IS militants on Sunday as part of their push to reclaim ground across the embattled western Anbar province. IS captured Ramadi, the provincial capital, in mid- May. Some militants were still holed up Wednesday in some buildings inside the university complex and ground forces have asked for airstrikes, the officials added. Some of the complex buildings and streets were rigged with bombs, preventing the Iraqi troops from moving easily. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to reporters.
An air strike by an Israeli surveillance plane hit a car in Quneitra province in southwestern Syria on Wednesday, killing two members of a militia fighting alongside the Syrian military, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV reported. The attack struck the car on the outskirts of the village of Hader, a Druze area at the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The dead were identified as members of the National Defence Forces, a pro-government militia whose members often come from the areas where they fight.
Asked about the reported strike, an Israeli military spokeswoman in Jerusalem declined comment. A spokesman for a Syrian rebel group operating in the same area confirmed the attack. "Israeli planes have been flying in the skies of Quneitra and the western Deraa countryside since this morning," said Abu Ghiath al-Shami, spokesman for the Alwiyat Seif al-Sham group. The Syrian air force bombarded a plain in the northwest of the country overnight, a group monitoring the war said, after insurgents launched an offensive to advance deeper into government-held areas vital to President Bashar al-Assad.
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