US-led coalition conducts 55 air strikes against targets in Syria – Iraq
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The US has led 55 air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in Iraq and Syria since Friday, according to Central Command.
In a statement on Monday, Centcom said there were 27 air strikes against Isis in Syria and 28 strikes in Iraq, hitting a wide variety of targets including Isis buildings, vehicles, tanks and fighting units.
One of the strikes in Syria hit the al-Qaida-affiliated Khorasan Group, Central Command said.
The Department of Defense and the State Department, meanwhile, appeared to differ over the idea of creating a buffer zone along the Syria-Turkish border, after a media report cited it as a possible concession to Turkey in return for the use of bases to launch air strikes against Isis.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed US and Turkish officials, reported that an agreement could include a safe zone along part of the Syrian border to protect refugees and certain opposition forces that would also “be off-limits” to aircraft from the government of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Ankara has long sought such a no-fly zone.
“We are in discussions with the Turks. Right now, we don’t believe a buffer zone is the best way to relieve the humanitarian crisis there in northern Syria,” Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. “But they are close allies, partners and friends, and we are in discussions with them about the way forward.”
State spokeswoman Jen Psaki later said the US was actively discussing a range of proposals with Turkey over border security with Syria, including a possible no-fly zone or safe area, though officials were not ready to implement a specific plan.
Psaki said there were still differences with Ankara over how to secure the border with Syria.
“There has been an ongoing discussions about a range of proposals that Turkey has put forward, and they have taken many forms … but we continue to have differences and haven’t made a decision about a specific course of implementation,” Psaki told reporters.
Assad is using the US-led air strikes as cover for his own air campaign against Syrian rebels, hitting the Isis stronghold of Raqqa in retaliation for the group’s killing of Syrian soldiers.