US F-16 fighter jets strike ISIL targets inside Syria: Pentagon
The United States has launched its first airstrikes into Syria against the terrorist group ISIL from neighboring Turkey, the Pentagon says.
The airstrikes were carried out on Wednesday by Turkey-based F-16 fighter aircraft which took off from Incirlik Air Base near the Syrian border, the Pentagon announced in a brief statement on Wednesday, without providing further details.
However, a US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that two of the six F-16s struck one or more targets that had been selected in advance.
The airstrikes inside Syria mark an expansion of the US air campaign against the terrorist group, which was allegedly created by Washington to destabilize the Middle East region.
The new access to US aircraft would shorten flight times compared with flights from bases in Iraq or aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.
The Turkish government agreed in late July to permit the US to station its warplanes at Injirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq since last year. But it has been criticized for causing civilian casualties and failure to stop ISIL advances.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. The United States and its regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside the country.
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