ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Turkish military source claimed that Turkey’s airstrikes and artillery bombardments have killed more than 860 members of the Islamic State (ISIS) this year.
Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency quoted an unidentified source as saying that since January 9, Turkey has killed 370 ISIS members using artillery fire and a further 492 using airstrikes. Additionally, it reportedly bombed ISIS headquarters and weapon depots.
The source claimed that Turkey has opened fire on ISIS a total of 5,330 times since January.
ISIS rocket fire on Turkey's frontier province of Kilis with Syria has killed 17 civilians since January and wounded many more. Turkey has been responding to these attacks primarily with artillery, likely out of fear that their jet fighters will get shot down by the Russian military in Syria if they venture too far into Syrian airspace.
Turkey had previously been accused of being lenient on ISIS, given Ankara’s staunch opposition to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).
Turkey initially closed the strategically important Incirlik airbase to the US-led coalition and didn't open it until July 2015 when it joined the coalition. However, even then it has focused the brunt of its efforts on combating the PKK since the war with that group was reignited the very same month.
Ankara has focused more on combating the PKK since January when a bomb attack killed 12 German tourists in Istanbul. Furthermore ISIS is believed to have been behind a bombing in Ankara last October that killed 109 peace demonstrators, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Turkey's modern history.
