Ankara May Consider Coalition Participation to Combat ISIL on Syrian Border

Turkey may propose its coalition partners to join operations against Islamic State militants along its border with Syria, Turkish Ambassador to Russia Ümit Yardim said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ankara may propose its coalition partners to join operations along the border with Syria in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIL), Turkish Ambassador to Russia Ümit Yardim said.

“The creation of a no-fly zone [along the border with Syria] is not currently on the agenda and is not being utilized. There is a task of cleansing the territory of 400 square kilometers of ISIL militants. We call this operation of cleansing the territory of terrorists and are not creating any type of special zone,” Yardim told RIA Novosti in an interview.

The ambassador said that it was premature to begin such an operation, but if it needs to be done, then “it would be done with those countries who are members of the coalition that Turkey gives its approval.”

Last week, Turkey launched a two-front military campaign against the ISIL terrorists in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in northern Iraq following a suicide attack in the Turkish border city of Suruc that killed 32 people, and the murders of two police officers in the southern city of Ceylanpinar.

Ankara reportedly agreed with the United States to create an “IS-free safe zone” for refugees in areas of northern Syria.

On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO is not participating in the creation of the buffer zone.

IS is a violent extremist religious group that has captured large areas in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and has committed many human rights atrocities. An international coalition of more than 60 countries are conducting airstrikes against IS positions in both countries.