The middle east situation is turning out to be a thriller. who is fighting whom, who is allied with whom..etc
Reminds me of movie "body of lies".
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/world/europe/turkey-us-incirlik-isis.html
By
ERIC SCHMITT and
DAN BILEFSKYJULY 16, 2016
Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey, last year. CreditIbrahim Erikan/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images
WASHINGTON — The Turkish authorities on Saturday halted, at least temporarily, all American-led strike missions against the Islamic State that had been flying from the Incirlik air base — the first major impact of the attempted coup on the broader allied campaign against the terrorist group, United States officials said.
“The Turkish government has closed its airspace to military aircraft, and as a result air operations at Incirlik Air Base have been halted at this time,” Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement. Mr. Cook said United States officials were “working with the Turks to resume air operations there as soon as possible.”
In the meantime, he said, the American military’s Central Command will alter flight operations in an effort “to minimize any effects on the campaign” against the Islamic State.
Pentagon officials had said late Friday that the unfolding coup had not affected the bombing and surveillance missions from Incirlik. The opening of that base to the allies has enabled commanders to accelerate and intensify airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
The potential loss of Incirlik as a staging area and major base, even if temporary, comes at a challenging time for the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, also known as
ISIS or ISIL. Local security forces in Iraq and militias in Syria, both supported by the United States, have finally started to gain significant momentum in their air and ground fights against the militants, aided largely by the access to Incirlik.
Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, in particular, had criticized Turkey over the past year for not taking aggressive enough action to tighten its borders and combat the Islamic State. But many of those criticisms from Mr. Carter and other American officials had begun to fade as the campaign against the militants in Iraq and Syria picked up momentum.
On Saturday, President Obama received a briefing on the situation in Turkey from senior aides. A White House statement said Mr. Obama “underscored the shared challenges that will require continued Turkish cooperation, including our joint efforts against terrorism.”
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At Incirlik, the United States has based A-10 attack planes, KC-135 refueling tankers and surveillance aircraft, including armed
drones. The Air Force has said American refueling aircraft at Incirlik handle roughly one-third of refueling operations for the air war over Iraq and Syria.
Use of the base increased the length of time that American and other allied warplanes could remain over Iraq and Syria. The manned and unmanned strike missions, as well as surveillance missions, from Incirlik — all hours closer to the fight than aircraft in the Persian Gulf — have made a big difference. Losing that advantage would significantly hamper operations, American commanders say.
At Diyarbakir, another Turkish base, the Air Force began staging small numbers of American troops last fall to recover any downed pilots or flight crews. The Pentagon’s plans to place a mobile rocket system known as Himars, short for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, somewhere in Turkey to support United States operations in Syria could also be in jeopardy.
The Turkish military, which sees itself as the guardian of the secular state, has overthrown or forced out four elected governments since 1960. Turks have long been fascinated by what they call “the deep state”: a murky group of operatives, linked to the military, thought to have battled perceived enemies of the state since the Cold War.
But in a striving Turkey of thriving capitalism and a still boisterous news media, memories of the damage to democracy fomented by
past coupsremains strong. In the first coup of 1960, the military tried the prime minister and president for treason. The 1980 “September 12 Coup” helped end a period of anarchy and terror, but not before thousands of people were arrested and dozens were executed and tortured.
Analysts said the latest coup attempt underlined the extent to which elements within the military had become frustrated by Turkey’s direction under President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a religious and conservative Muslim. Mr. Erdogan came to power in 2002, pledging to declaw the once powerful military. He proceeded to impose civilian rule over the state by putting dozens of prominent generals and officers in prison after dramatic show trials for treason, often on tenuous and even fabricated evidence.
Moreover, Mr. Erdogan, whose government once promised a foreign policy of
“zero problems with neighbors” has seen conflicts multiply, including 14 attacks on Turkey in the past year by Kurdish and Islamic State militants. He has presided over an increasingly shaky economy, and alienated allies from the United States to Russia. His government has been mired by
accusations of corruption.
American and NATO officials have been pressing to insulate the mission against the Islamic State at Incirlik and other Turkish bases from the internal upheaval. But even if they succeed, Turkish politicians and security forces are likely to be, at the very least, distracted from their counterterrorism focus despite recent vows to redouble efforts after last month’s
Istanbul airport bombing.
“They’re going to be focused on rooting out coup plotters, and that’s going to preoccupy all the national security services; and everything else, including going after ISIL, will be secondary,” said Eric S. Edelman, a former United States ambassador to Turkey and top Pentagon official under President George W. Bush. “It may affect their ability to protect themselves from ISIL blowback in Turkey.”
One big concern expressed by officials and analysts is that Mr. Erdogan will freeze the cooperation against the Islamic State while he sorts out who in the military supported and carried out the coup attempt. If the Turkish military fractures further — whether through arrests, forced retirements or other actions — it could become a weakened partner in the fight against the Islamic State.