ANKARA
Turkey has scotched claims that warplanes involved in attacks on militants in Syria used the Incirlik air base and Turkish air space.
Citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Reuters news agency claimed on Wednesday that aircraft targeting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) near the Syrian-Turkish border had approached from the direction of Turkey.
The agency reported claims of air attacks on Tuesday night around Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, where 140,000 mostly Kurdish refugees have fled across the border to escape ISIL.
In a statement, the office of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said: "The allegations that Incirlik base was used in air strikes against ISIL points in Syria do not reflect the truth.”
Incirlik (10th Tanker Base Command) is a logistics base under Turkish command near Adana in southern Turkey.
During a talk show interview in New York on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would fulfil its responsibilities as part of anti-terrorism operations by the US-led coalition forces against ISIL.
He stressed the importance of setting up UN safe zones along the border to deal with the huge amount of refugees leaving Syria and said airstrikes against ISIL were only one part of the solution.
On Wednesday, a Syrian Network of Human Rights report said at least 24 civilians, including five children and five women, were killed during the anti-ISIL alliance airstrikes.
Twelve were killed in Idlib and six in both Deir ez-Zor and Aleppo.
The network added that Syrian government air attacks claimed a further 28 civilian lives on Tuesday, including four children and two women.
www.aa.com.tr/en
