Two US military officials have said that Turkey has declined US air support for its troops fighting Syria against ISIS, and instead has asked Russia to assume the role instead.

For the last few days, Turkey has been accepting air support from Russia, the NBC News reported on Wednesday.

This is while, the Turks have turned down the US-led coalition’s help, the officials claimed.

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In December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that the US had failed to keep its promise of air support in Ankara’s operations in the Arab country, mainly in the city of al-Bab, which has proven a tough battle for the Turks, PressTV reported.

“Even though the US-led coalition has failed to keep its promises [pledging air support] in our operation to liberate al-Bab, we will rid the city of Daesh terrorists, no matter what,” Erdogan said back then.

The complaints continued on Wednesday, with Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik saying that he lack of US air support was fueling negative public sentiments over Washington’s use of Turkey’s Incirlik airbase, the PressTV report continued.

According to NBC, when one of the military officials was asked whether Russia was pounding ISIS in the city, he said “for now they are.”

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Turkey did not take kindly to being told “No, for the hundreth time, we are not going to bomb the Kurds for you!”

    I am glad the US has been pushing back against the Turks and finally living up to our side of the alliance with the SDF. Hopefully when the US betrays the Kurds, the damage will be minimal to them. Because US politicians and voters are quick to forget allies if you are not currently doing something for them.

    • Well, having a few AA batteries would be nice for SDF, maybe even some CIWS to protect these : Turkey has AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missiles. CIWS can also shoot artillery/mortar shells… Now, it may also end creating troubles with Assad but… PYD is not against keeping Syria as a single country and there is already a de facto Rojava autonomous region so unless Assad wants, when terrorists terminated, to end with a real civil war, the federal solution is the way, in fact, he should even do such a constitutional move now and it’d empower both SAA and SDF, it’d even be the best bargain for the Kurds at it’d take Turks under harm’s way attacking them as they could expect SAA using air defences and ballistic missiles against them…
      Fuck, idiotic Erdogan should really mind his own business! Just fucking blockade the border and let adults solve the problems!

  2. What Turkish MoD forget to say is that US fixed them the condition to stop attacking Syrian Kurds to get air-support!
    BTW, Turkey has 234 F-16 (and a F-16 factory!), 42 F-4E Terminator-2020, 33 T-38M, 40 KAI KT-1 then 4 MQ-1 Predator and 10 ANKA drones that can be armed…
    The question is : why they fucking would ask Russia to do air support for them??? Well, I know they fell just a little under 1 pilot per plane, thanks to their purges, nevertheless, any pilot can do at least 3 missions a day. Well, it can also come from monetary problems as tourism has lost 32.5% in 3 months, thanks to crazy AKP politics, thus, due to low oil prices, Russian economy isn’t doing great too and Russia has a maximum of 42 aircraft in Syria and probably no more than 30 now!
    So what’s this Turkish bullshitting again while THK is technically able to perform at least 500 strikes a day without problems!
    Well, the only reason I see is they are likely to find them into troubles with Syrian air defences : Buk and Pantsir seem very efficient and well, a modernised S-200 with S-300/350/400 seeker may be an extremely dangerous thing too. Let it be clear : Turkish troops operating into Syria is very badly seen : hey, they’re an invasion force and weren’t invited at all! Moreover, Turkey has high responsibility in the destruction of more than half of the country… Not sure that even without orders or even with orders to not shoot at Turkish planes, air defences may not take the initiative : all the teams have good reason to want to shoot THK down!

    • It’s Erdogan+AKP who should be kicked out!
      They’re a problem for EVERYBODY, including the Turkish people.
      Remember that AKP is nothing else than a M.Brotherhood offshoot, so is Qaeda. Without their nasty actions, all this shit in Syria would not have had the consequences we face now.