By JULIE PACE and SUZAN FRASER
Only on AP: Islamic State Sympathizers in Turkey
"This is an operation that involves the world against ISIL," Obama declared, referring to the militant group by one of its many names.
The Turkish airstrikes occurred Monday and marked the country's first major strikes against Kurdish rebels on its own soil since peace talks began two years ago. The strikes came amid anger among the Kurds in Turkey, who accuse the government there of standing by while Syrian Kurds are being killed by Islamic State militants in the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani.
The Islamic State militants also have targeted Kurds in Iraq, who have to some extent been able to hold off their advances.
The
U.S. has been pressing Turkey — a NATO ally — to take a more active
role in the campaign to destroy the Islamic State group, but the Turks
have said they won't join the fight unless the U.S.-led coalition also
targets Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. The Obama
administration sees those as separate fights and has no appetite to go
to war against Assad.
Officials from Ankara
participated in Tuesday's meeting at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. A
U.S. military official familiar with the talks said the chiefs of
defense agreed to recommend to their governments that they continue to
move forward together against the extremists, "to contribute
capabilities best suited to each nation, and to take action to build on
the successes already achieved by coalition efforts on the ground and in
the air." The official requested anonymity for providing the
information.
Earlier Tuesday,
the U.S.-led coalition stepped up attacks on Islamic State targets in
Kobani, launching 21 airstrikes in and around the town. One of the
strikes targeted the Tel Shair hill that overlooks parts of the city,
according to Idriss Nassan, deputy head of Kobani's foreign relations
committee.
Nassan said
Kurdish fighters later captured the hill and brought down the black flag
of the Islamic State group. However, the extremist group still controls
more than a third of the predominantly Kurdish town.
While
the White House has tried to point out progress in the campaign against
the militants, the government is also preparing the American public for
a military effort that could extend well beyond Obama's presidency.
Officials acknowledged Tuesday that the airstrikes in Kobani may not be
enough to prevent a militant takeover, given the lack of an effective
fighting force on the ground.
"We
certainly do not want the town to fall," White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said. "At the same time, our capacity to prevent that town from
falling is limited by the fact that air strikes can only do so much."
Syrian Kurds have been
begging the international community for heavy weapons to help bolster
their defense of Kobani. They've also called for Turkey to open the
border to allow members of the Kurdish militia in northwestern Syria —
known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG — to travel through
Turkish territory to reinforce the city.
So far, both requests have gone unfulfilled.
The
Kurds of Syria and Iraq have become a major focal point in the war
against the Islamic State group, with Kurdish populations in both
countries threatened by the militants' lightning advance.
Syrian
and Iraqi Kurds took part in cross-border operations to help rescue
tens of thousands of displaced people from the minority Yazidi group
from Iraq's Sinjar Mountain in August.
Turkey,
however, is wary of the Syrian Kurds and their YPG militia, which it
believes is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK movement in southeast Turkey
that has waged a long and bloody insurgency against Ankara. The U.S.
considers the PKK a terrorist group.
The PKK and Turkey agreed
to a cease-fire last year, but the agreement has begun to unravel. Asked
about the reports of a resumption in strikes against the Kurdish
rebels, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Tuesday that Turkish forces
took the "necessary measure" following intense "harassing fire" by the
rebels on a military outpost.
"It is impossible for us to tolerate or to placate these (attacks)," Davutoglu said.
Kurds,
who make up an estimated 20 percent of Turkey's 75 million people, have
faced decades of discrimination, including restrictions on the use of
their language. The PKK has fought Turkey for autonomy for Kurds in a
conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.
The
U.S. has been pressing Turkey to focus its efforts on the fight against
the Islamic State group, an enemy the Turkish government shares with
the Kurds.
U.S. officials
have pointed to some signs of cooperation from Turkey, including
commitments to help stem the flow of foreign fighters across the border
into Syria. The White House said Tuesday that discussions are also
continuing over whether Turkey will allow the U.S. and other countries
to use bases in the country to launch attacks against the Islamic State
group.
___
Fraser
reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers Desmond Butler,
Lefteris Pitarakis and Ryan Lucas in Turkey, Bassem Mroue in Beirut and
Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
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