ANKARA, Turkey
The U.S. on Wednesday carried out its first airstrike on positions in Syria held by the Daesh militant group -- with the use of an unmanned drone -- from an airbase in southern Turkey, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis has said.
Earlier Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey and the U.S. had “made progress” on the use of Turkey’s Incirlik airbase by American military jets.
“The U.S. planes have started to come; we will soon launch the comprehensive fight against Daesh,” Cavusoglu told Anadolu Agency in Malaysia after holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Cavusoglu went on to describe the extremist group – which remains in control of large swathes of both Syria and Iraq – as the biggest threat to the region, going on to assert that it had to be dealt with in a “results-oriented” manner.
Last month, Turkey agreed to allow the U.S. military to launch airstrikes against Daesh positions from the airbase, which is located close to Turkey’s border with war-torn Syria.
