DHAKA: Turkey has allowed US warplanes to resume air strikes in Syria and Iraq from the Incirlik airbase, the Pentagon announced on Sunday (July 17).

The decision came after a failed coup and arrests shut down the base and shook the already fragile relations between the countries, reports the Guardian.

“After close coordination with our Turkish allies, they have reopened their airspace to military aircraft,” the Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook said.

Airstrikes against targets in Syria and Iraq have resumed “at all air bases in Turkey”, he added.

The government of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan only agreed to let the US fly from its bases last year, months after a US-led campaign began against Islamic State and other jihadi groups.

In the aftermath of the coup, led by a faction within the military, Turkish officials said officers at the Incirlik base had been arrested. There was no suggestion that American troops were in involved in any way but missions were halted, raising concerns about the future of the allied campaign.

“Apparently there may have been some refuelling that took place with the Turkish air force with planes that were flying with the coup itself,” the US secretary of state, John Kerry, said. “It’s not focused on us.”

Kerry added that he had spoken with his Turkish counterpart.

BDST: 2145 HRS, JUL 17, 2016
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