Turkey’s attacks in Syria, Iraq kill 200 Islamic State militants

PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkish tanks and artillery have bombarded Islamic State positions in Syria and Iraq over the past 48 hours, killing almost 200 of its fighters in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Istanbul, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday, January 14, Reuters reports.

An Islamic State suicide bomber, who entered Turkey as a Syrian refugee, blew himself up among groups of tourists in the historic center of Istanbul on Tuesday, killing 10 Germans and seriously wounding several other foreigners.

Turkey, a NATO member and part of the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, would also carry out air strikes against the radical Sunni militants if necessary and would not yield until they were flushed from its borders, Davutoglu said.

"After the incident on Tuesday … close to 500 artillery and tank shells were fired on Daesh positions in Syria and Iraq," he told a conference of Turkish ambassadors in the capital Ankara, using an Arabic name for Islamic State.

"Close to 200 Daesh members including so-called regional leaders were neutralized in the last 48 hours. After this, every threat directed at Turkey will be punished in kind."

Davutoglu said the Turkish strikes had targeted Islamic State positions around Bashiqa in northern Iraq, where Ankara recently deployed a force protection unit to defend Turkish soldiers who are training an Iraqi militia in the fight against the Sunni radicals.