Turkey launched airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, targeting positions of the Islamic State on Friday and expanding to Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq by Saturday, the Turkish government announced.
The strikes come after a suicide bomber linked to ISIS, as the Islamic State terrorist group is known, killed 32 people in the southwestern Turkish town of Suruc earlier this week.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that at least nine IS-fighters were killed and twelve injured in the airstrikes. The operations will continue, said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.
By also going after the PKK, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has in effect broken an uneasy ceasefire in place since 2013.
In a telephone call Wednesday, Erdoğan and U.S. President Barack Obama talked about “deepening our ongoing cooperation” against ISIS, according to the White House readout of the call. The U.S. will now be able to use Turkey’s Incirlik air base. In a statement Friday, the Turkish government endorsed “joint action” against ISIS.