A shell exploding on in the Syrian city of Kobane as seen
from the Turkish border village of Mursitpinar
(AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)
|
Foreign Minister
Feridun Sinirlioglu told the state-run news agency Anatolia that IS militants
still had a presence on some of Turkey 's
border with northern Syria .
"We have
certain plans to put an end to the control that IS is still exercising on a
zone of our frontier," he said, without specifying the nature of the plans
but saying they would be jointly implemented with the US .
"When these
plans are completed, our operations will continue with more and more intensity.
You will see this in the days to come."
US Secretary of
State John Kerry said in an interview with CNN late Tuesday that "we are
entering an operation with the Turks" to shut off 98 kilometres (61 miles)
of border still not secure from IS.
Their comments come
amid growing momentum for coordinated international action against IS after the
Paris attacks last week claimed by the extremist Islamist group which killed
129 and injured 350.
IS "is still present in a zone on our
border. We will not tolerate it keeping a presence on our border," said
Sinirlioglu.
Turkish security
forces on Tuesday killed one suspected IS militant seeking to cross into Turkey from Syria , the army said Wednesday.
Twenty-one people,
including nine children, who were part of the group trying to cross the border
were detained.
Meanwhile, Turkish
police said they detained eight suspected IS members at Istanbul 's
main airport who had travelled from Morocco ,
adding they were planning to sneak into Europe
posing as refugees.
Sinirlioglu had
said on the sidelines of the Group of 20 meeting in Antalya
that at the moment Turkey
had "no intention" of using its ground troops to intervene in Syria .
Speaking at the
G20, US President Barack Obama had expressed scepticism about a safe zone,
saying "a true safe zone requires us to set up ground operations."
"There's a
whole set of questions that have to be answered there," including how such
a zone would work and whether it would be a "magnet" for terror
attacks, Obama added.
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