As well as the airstrikes, Turkey carried out simultaneous raids across 13 provinces on Friday, resulting in the arrests of 297 people, including 37 foreigners, suspected of having ties to terrorist organizations.
During the raids, a member of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, known by its Turkish initials DHKP-C, was killed after the police tried to enter a house in the Bagcilar district of Istanbul. The member’s identity has not yet been released.
Ebu Hanzala, a Salafist cleric who is considered to be one of the spiritual leaders of the Islamic State in Turkey, was among those arrested in the raids.
Mr. Hanzala, who in the past was suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda, has been arrested several times in counterterrorism operations, but the authorities have never had enough evidence to prosecute him.
Three F-16 jets launched guided bombs against two command centers and a meeting point for Islamic State fighters across the border from Kilis, in southern Turkey, without entering Syrian airspace, according to the prime minister’s office.
“We received intelligence about stockpiles of weapons and a gathering of Islamic State militants very close to our border,” the senior government official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with protocol. “The operation was carried out, not as an offense, but as a defense.”
It was the first time that Turkish warplanes have bombed Islamic State targets inside Syria. Hours earlier, the combat on the Syrian border with Islamic State militants left one Turkish military officer dead.
“We cannot stand by as Kurdish, leftist and Islamic State militants target Turkey,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Ankara on Friday.
After facing months of pressure from its Western allies to pursue a more active role against the Islamic State, Turkey on Thursday made a major tactical shift by granting permission for American warplanes to use two Turkish air bases. The move was described as a “game changer” by United States officials.
The moves came at a time of heightened violence and tension along the 500-mile border between Turkey and Syria. On Monday, a suicide bomber suspected of having ties to the Islamic State struck a cultural center in the Turkish border town of Suruc, killing 32 people and wounding 100 others.
Turkish fighter jets retreated from the border early Friday, according to the Turkish authorities, who said that more airstrikes would be possible once the level of risk had been assessed.
More about:
