U.S.-led coalition reverses course, provides air support for Turkish troops in Syria

The U.S.-backed coalition in Syria for the first time is providing air support for a Turkish offensive against Islamic State positions, increasing the prospect that American commanders could allow Ankara to play a role in the coalition’s drive against the terrorist group’s de facto capital of Raqqa.

The air operation near the northern Syrian town of al Bab, just over 100 miles west of Raqqa, was announced days after the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, claimed responsibility for a New Year’s shooting spree at an Istanbul nightclub that left 39 people dead and scores injured.

Reports say Turkish military commanders are looking to Russian air forces in Syria for support as they face increasing Islamic State resistance in the al Bab operation.

A warming of relations between Moscow and Ankara was critical in securing a cease-fire deal in Syria’s bloody 6-year-old civil war. The Obama administration was not involved in the truce negotiations.

U.S. commanders leading the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria publicly declared in November that their forces would not back Turkey’s drive to al Bab. Command officials said the Turkish offensive was detrimental to the coalition’s battle plan in Syria.

Coalition commanders are focusing their support for the Raqqa offensive being led by the Kurdish-Arab paramilitary coalition dubbed the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.

Giving Ankara’s long history of clashes with Kurdish separatist forces, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to acknowledge the SDF’s Raqqa operation, which kicked off in October. Turkey’s incursion across the border is in part aimed at containing the Kurdish forces’ gains.

“We believe that all of the operations in Syria against [the Islamic State] should be coordinated very closely between all the parties that are involved. [Al Bab] is something that they’ve decided to do independently,” Air Force Col. John Dorrian, the top coalition spokesman, told reporters during a November briefing in Iraq.

But Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook sounded a different tone Tuesday regarding the al Bab offensive and the coalition’s role.

“We are working every day, including today, with all of our partners in Iraq and Syria with regard to the counter-ISIL effort. And that includes Turkey in Syria and their efforts … and we are going to expend every effort we can to make sure that we’re doing this in the most effective way possible,” Mr. Cook said.

“That’s part of the give-and-take that is going on with Turkey right now,” he told reporters.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said last month that he planned to explore coordination with Turkey in the SDF’s Raqqa offensive once the city had been fully encircled.

He said his command invited Ankara to participate in the U.S.-backed Raqqa operation in October but Turkish forces were not ready to take an active role in the mission.

Asked Tuesday whether the goal of discussions with Ankara is to fully integrate Turkish forces into the U.S.-backed offensive against Raqqa, Mr. Cook replied, “The goal is to defeat ISIL, and it is a goal that we and Turkey share.”

It was Turkey’s ramped-up effort in Syria that reportedly inspired the New Year’s attack in Istanbul. The Islamic State claimed responsibility shortly after the shooting rampage.

Turkish security forces were continuing their manhunt for the gunman and detained dozens of people suspected of plotting the mass shooting. Among the 16 arrested in connection with the massacre were two foreigners stopped at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, Agence France-Presse reported.

Funerals were held Tuesday in Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Turkey for the dead, most of them tourists.

The triggerman remains at large. Authorities in Kyrgyzstan questioned a 28-year-old Kyrgyz on suspicion of being the gunman but ultimately released him, Agence France-Presse reported.

Turkey has been rocked by violent attacks in the past year by the Islamic State as well as Kurdish militants. The government survived an attempted coup in the summer and is fighting Kurdish insurgents.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told parliament that authorities thwarted 339 attacks last year, including 313 by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and 22 by the Islamic State group.

⦁ This article is based in part on wire service reports.