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.
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