(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Turkish warplanes attacked Islamic State (IS) targets in Syria for the first time yesterday in two missions, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against the jihadists and Kurdish militants at home.
Turkey has long been a reluctant partner in the US-led coalition against IS, emphasising instead the need to oust Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and saying Syrian Kurdish forces also pose a grave security threat.
But yesterday's attacks, which officials said were launched from Turkish air space, signalled that Ankara would crack down on IS across the Syrian border, while pursuing the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) - which Ankara describes as a separatist organisation - at home.
Three F-16 fighter jets took off from a base in Diyarbakir, southeastern Turkey, and hit two IS bases and one "assembly point" before returning, the prime minister's office said.
Earlier, warplanes bombed three targets controlled by IS up to 14km inside Syrian territory, the official Anatolia news agency said. It said a three-storey building used as a meeting place for jihadists in El Tabiye was hit 14km inside Syria from the Turkish border, an IS headquarters in El Zahiriye district about 11.5km and a similar building in Burgi, about 4km inside Syria.
It said a Joint Direct Attack Munition guidance system was used to help the bombs to find their targets. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the strikes were "100 percent" successful and eliminated their targets.
Police also rounded up nearly 300 people in raids against suspected IS and Kurdish militants, Davutoglu said after vowing to fight all "terrorist groups" equally.
Local media reported that helicopters and over 5,000 officers, including special forces, were deployed in the operation.
Anti-terror police raided more than 100 locations across Istanbul.
One official said: "This morning's air strike and operation against terrorist groups domestically are steps taken as preventive measures against a possible attack against Turkey from within or from outside.
Turkey has repeatedly said it will take any "necessary measures" to protect itself from attack by IS and Kurdish militants. The air strikes follow a phone conversation between Erdogan and US President Barack Obama on Wednesday.
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