Posted on 09/03/2015 7:43:18 PM PDT by kristinn
The U.S. government is offering families of American service members and diplomatic employees voluntary evacuation from Turkey in a sign of the increased threat caused by the start of U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State in Syria from a key Turkish air base.
The Defense Department said about 900 dependents of American troops based at the Incirlik Air Base in southeastern Turkey will be able to fly home on commercial airliners at government expense. The State Department said roughly 100 families members of people stationed at the U.S. Consulate in nearby Adana, Turkey, are eligible to leave.
“This decision was made out of an abundance of caution following the commencement of military operations out of Incirlik Air base,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters at a briefing.
Cook denied that the voluntary evacuation was being offered in response to any concrete danger from Islamic State militants or other anti-American groups.
“This is not being done because of any specific new threat,” Cook said. “We’ve been at an elevated force protection level in Turkey, at Incirlik, for some time now. This is just an extra step being taken out of an abundance of caution.”
About 1,700 American service members, most of them in the Air Force, were at Incirlik before the U.S.-Turkish agreement in July to allow F-16s flown by American pilots to bomb Islamic State fighters across the Syrian border about 75 miles southeast of the air base.
Hundreds more U.S. airmen are arriving at Incirlik to support the direct air campaign, which began Aug. 12 when the first American bombers took off from the air base.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
I lived in Turkey when the place was under martial law, but even Nixon was a better foreign policy president than anything Zero can be.
Erdogan supports ISIS.
The Koran forbids Muslims taking charity from other Muslims, that’s what the Infidel is for.
What really pisses me off is that it is TURKEY that is responsible for that dead child in that pic, and yet NOBODY has blamed Turkey for his plight, they blame the West.
Erdogan supports ISIS.
That’s what I think, too.
Aren’t there supposed to be some elections this fall?
The last election was not that long ago and Erdogan lost some power. Maybe something good will happen.
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