WASHINGTON (AP) – Turkey’s dramatic air campaign against the Islamic State and Kurdish forces has created a bit of a conundrum for President Barack Obama, who is leading the fight against one of Turkey’s targets while relying heavily on the other target.
In a dizzying array of alliances, Obama has been pleading with Turkey for nearly a year to fight the Islamic State more aggressively and allow the U.S. military to launch airstrikes from its Incirlik air base. Finally Turkey agreed, in a deal announced last week, and days later, the U.S. said it would help Turkey oust Islamic State from a 68-mile stretch in Syria along the Turkish border.
But in an unexpected twist, Turkey abruptly began bombing Kurdish rebels in Iraq, where Kurds have proven unusually capable of wresting back territory from the extremist Sunni militant group known as the Islamic State, or Daesh in Arabic.
“Knowingly or not, the U.S. is going to end up having to choose between the Turks and the Kurds,” said Blaise Misztal, national security director at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center.
So far, it appears to be siding with Turkey, a NATO ally.