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Turkey–ISIL conflict
Part of the Spillover of the Syrian Civil War and Military intervention against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
Territories controlled by the YPG, ISIL, the Syrian Army, Free Syrian Army, or contested in northern Syria, as of late June 2015, south of the border with Turkey.
Date 11 May 2013 – present (11 years, 7 months, 2 weeks and 2 days) Location Syria–Turkey border Status Series of terrorist attacks by ISIL on Turkish soil since 2013 Unplanned clash on the border in March 2014 First direct conflict began on 23 July 2015 in the border town of Kilis
Belligerents
Turkey Turkish Armed Forces Turkish Gendarmerie General Directorate of Security Other forces: Peshmerga Supported by: United States	Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Military of ISIL Dokumacılar
Commanders and leaders
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Ahmet Davutoğlu Necdet Özel	Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Abu Ala al-Afri Abu Ali al-Anbari Abu Suleiman al-Naser
Strength
423,299 military personnel 182,805 Gendarmes (2014 figures, of which not all are directly involved)	5 (taking part in the initial offensive on 23 July) 31,500–100,000 (in total, of which not all are directly involved)
Casualties and losses
2 killed, 3 wounded	5 killed (between 35 to 100 killed in airstrikes) 2 suicide bombers
Civilian Casualties: 87 civilians killed in a series of terrorist attacks connected to ISIL, with more than 300 wounded

The Turkey–ISIL conflict is an ongoing military conflict between the Turkish Armed Forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which began with a series of terrorist attacks and military incidents involving the two organisations in 2013 and 2014. The first direct act of conflict occurred on 23 July 2015, when ISIL militants engaged Turkish soldiers on the Syrian-Turkish border near the town of Elbeyli in Kilis Province, Turkey.

The Turkish government had largely pursued a policy of inaction against ISIL up to July 2015, a stance that was criticised both nationally and internationally. Clashes between the two on the Turkish-Syrian border had mostly been unplanned. Despite this, ISIL was linked to numerous terrorist attacks on Turkish soil, having allegedly taken the decision to pursue more active operations in Turkey beforehand. Such attacks included the 2013 Reyhanlı bombings, the 2015 Istanbul suicide bombing, the 2015 Diyarbakır rally bombing and most notably the 2015 Suruç bombing. Inaction against ISIL contributed to the breakout of deadly riots by Kurdish citizens during the Siege of Kobanî and was thought to have contributed to Turkey's failure to win a seat in the United Nations Security Council in the 2014 Security Council election. Opposition journalists, commentators and politicians also accused the government of implicitly supporting and even funding ISIL, pointing to Turkey's decision to not join the anti-ISIL coalition or allow the United States Air Force to use the highly strategic İncirlik Air Base during the global military intervention against the organisation.

On 23 July 2015, just a few days after an ISIL suicide bomber killed 32 activists in the Turkish district of Suruç, ISIL militants engaged Turkish army positions in the border town of Kilis, killing one soldier. Turkish Armed Forces pursued the militants into Syria, bombarding an abandoned village in which they were thought to be taking refuge, with artillery and F-16 bombing. The conflict is currently ongoing, with large-scale domestic counter-terrorism operations targeting ISIL members amongst others beginning on 24 July. The Turkish government also reached consensus with the United States to allow the US Air Force to use İncirlik Air Base, a move described as a 'game changer' in the fight against ISIL by many commentators, as well as to create ISIL-free zones in Syria.

Background

Website Al-Monitor is of the opinion that Turkey, during the Syrian Civil War and until at least June 2014, by "ignoring its own border security", had allowed its Syria border to become a "jihadist highway": a route for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL; also called ISIS) to let thousands of international jihadists, and other supplies, reach Syria.
While there were a few incidents, detailed below, relations between Turkey and ISIL remained cordial. A joint communiqué, issued 11 September 2014 by the United States and 10 Arab states to stop the flow of volunteers to ISIL, was not signed by Turkey present at the meeting.

Chronology

May 2013 potential ISIL attack

On 11 May 2013, two car bombs exploded in the town of Reyhanlı, Hatay Province, Turkey, close to the busiest land border post (Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing) with Syria. 51 people were killed and 140 injured in the attack, the deadliest single act of terrorism to occur on Turkish soil.

The responsibility for the attack is as yet unclear: politicians, authorities, media, suspects have named at least six possibilities. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as late as September 2013, at the occasion of a threat to the Turkish government, suddenly claimed the 11 May 2013 attack.

In response to the attacks, the Turkish government sent air and ground forces to increase the already heavy military presence in the area.

ISIL threatens Turkey (Sept. 2013)

Around 30 September 2013, according to English-language newspaper/website Today's Zaman, "a statement attributed to (…) ISIL" threatened Turkey with a series of suicide attacks in Istanbul and Ankara unless Turkey would reopen its Syrian border crossings at Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salameh before 7 October.

January 2014 Turkish attack on ISIL convoy

On 28 January 2014, the Turkish air force, according to few sources, performed an airstrike on Syrian territory hitting a pickup, a truck and a bus in an ISIL convoy. Conflicting reports however said it was fire from Turkish tanks and artillery hitting the ISIL vehicles.

March 2014 potential ISIL attack

On 20 March, three foreigners emerging from a taxi opened fire with an AK-47 (some reports say Glock automatics) and lobbed a hand grenade, killing a soldier and a policeman who were conducting routine checks on the Ulukisla-Adana expressway. The attackers were wounded in return fire but got away. Two of the attackers were apprehended at Eminlik village, where villagers, thinking they were wounded Syrians, took them to the local medical clinic. Kosovan officials confirmed that the attackers were linked to al-Qaeda; some Turkish media preferred the scenario that they were from ISIL.

June–September 2014 hostage swap Turkey–ISIL

During the June 2014 takeover of Mosul, ISIL captured the Turkish consulate and held its 49 people staff hostage.

The hostages were freed in mid September 2014. It was later revealed that Turkish authorities had paid an amount of money to ISIL officials and the hostages were later swapped for 180 ISIL militants who had been apprehended or undergoing medical treatment in Turkey. Turkey earlier had denied paying ransom.

US-led coalition against ISIL (Sept. 2014)

On 5 September 2014, Turkey entered a coalition of ten countries vowing to 'join forces to fight ISIL'.

Training of Kurdish Peshmerga (Nov. 2014)

Early November 2014, Turkish soldiers began training Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq, Turkey and Peshmerga confirmed, ‘as part of the struggle against ISIL’, a Turkish official said.

ISIL threatening the Tomb of Suleyman Shah (2014–2015)

After Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in March 2014 had threatened to attack the Tomb of Suleyman Shah (the grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire; the tomb was located in northern Syria), and in early 2015 possibly was surrounding that tomb site, Turkey on 21 February 2015 decided to evacuate that tomb site, with a military convoy of hundred armored vehicles and 570 troops, and remove it, some 27 km northward, still in Syria but now 200 meters from the Turkish border.

June 2015 potential ISIL attack

On 5 June 2015, just 48 hours before the June 2015 general election, two separate bombs exploded at an electoral rally in Diyarbakır held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Four HDP supporters were killed and over 100 were injured. Suspicions as for the perpetrators lie on ISIL, on some ISIL-linked terrorist cell named the 'Dokumacılar' (Weavers), and on the PKK.

Presumed ISIL bomb attack Suruç

On 20 July 2015, the municipal cultural center in Suruç in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa was bombed. 32 people, mostly university-aged students planning to reconstruct the Syrian border town of Kobanî, were killed and 100 people were hospitalised. Turkey immediately blamed ISIL; the next day, ISIL claimed the attack.

Elbeyli incident

On 23 July 2015 at 13:30 local time, five ISIL militants attacked Turkish soldiers at a Turkish military post in the border town of Elbeyli, Kilis Province, killing one soldier (Yalçın Nane) and wounding two others.

Turkish forces subsequently pursued the militants into Syria and engaged the militants, killing one and heavily damaging ISIL vehicles. Turkish tanks also bombarded a small (abandoned) Syrian village north of Azaz, Aleppo, in which the ISIL militants were thought to be taking refuge, and killed or wounded several of the ISIL militants who were trying to take cover there.

Around 7pm on 23 July, reports stated that 100 ISIL militants had been killed, but those reports were criticised by anti-government newspapers. The Turkish Armed Forces later stated that all five ISIL militants who had attacked the Turkish army in Elbeyli had been killed.

Coinciding events 24 July

Operation Martyr Yalçın

On 24 and 25 July, Turkey carried out three waves of airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria. These attacks were motivated as to be a “safeguard national security”. Considering its name ‘Martyr Yalçın’, it appears a revenge for an alleged ISIL attack the previous day killing a Turkish soldier named Yalçın Nane. Several ISIL targets were struck and reportedly 35 ISIL men killed; some Turkish F-16 jets thereby violated Syrian airspace.

Domestic counter-terrorism operation

On 24 and 25 July, Turkey engaged in police raids in 22 provinces in Turkey targeting suspected members of ISIL, the Kurdish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Kurdish Revolutionary People's Liberation Party–Front (DHKP/C) and PKK’s youth organisation YGD/H.

590 suspects from all of the groups targeted had been arrested by 25 July. The arrests included one ISIL member who had allegedly been planning a suicide bombing in Konya.

Double deal Turkey–US: air base use for Turkish buffer zone

On 24 July, the Turkish, English-language newspaper/website Hürriyet Daily News reported a double deal between Turkey and the United States: Turkey giving permission to the US to use İncirlik Air Base in Yüreğir, Adana Province in southern Turkey for its air strikes on ISIL, and the US allowing Turkey to set up a partial no-fly zone in Northern Syria of 90 km wide, between Syria’s Mare and Cerablus, 40 to 50 km deep.

Turkey and the US have officially confirmed the İncirlik Air Base deal, but neither Turkey nor US has officially announced the deal on the Turkish buffer zone – a no-fly zone protected by Turkish and coalition forces – which would provide safe haven for refugees and deny crucial territory to the Syrian Kurds.

In the no-fly zone, Syrian regime jets will not be permitted. Hürriyet Daily News’ report suggested that the no-fly zone was intended to “prevent radical groups such as ISIL or the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front from gaining the mentioned land”; but it also suggested that the US would turn a blind eye to possible future Turkish military action against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

See also

• 2015 counter-terrorism operations in Turkey

References

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• Turkey–ISIL conflict
• Wars involving the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
• Wars involving Turkey
• Conflicts in 2013
• Conflicts in 2014
• Conflicts in 2015
• Syrian Civil War
• 2013 in Turkey
• 2013 in Iraq
• 2014 in Turkey
• 2014 in Iraq
• 2015 in Turkey
• 2015 in Iraq