Europe

Home page

Europe

US drones to use Turkish territory to strike IS with half-ton bombs

14 March 2015 09:02 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Agha Jafarli – APA. The US army will use the Incirlik airbase in Turkey’s Adana province during military operations against the Islamic State (IS).

The countries came to such an agreement last week, APA reported citing Turkey’s Vatan newspaper.

The US will use “Predator” drones to strike IS targets in Iraq. Predator drones have been at the US Air Force’s disposal since 1995 and are extremely difficult to detect and shoot. These drones are designed to pound ground targets with 500-kg Hellfire missiles, and are able to fly 740 km high and stay in air for 30 hours. Hellfire missiles were widely used to strike Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan and Yemen.

Note that, the Iraqi Army is preparing for a large-scale operation to retake Mosul, the country’s second largest city, from IS. The US, Turkey and Iran will provide assistance to the army.