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Saudi warplanes may come to Turkey within days: Turkish FM

Xinhua, February 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Saudi Arabian military jets could arrive in Turkey in the next few days to carry out missions against the Islamic State (IS) militants group, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday.

The aircraft are likely to be based at the Incirlik air base in Turkey's southern Adana province, from which many U.S. bombers have been bombing the IS areas in Syria.

Cavusoglu said it was not certain how many Saudi warplanes would be based in Turkey.

"Because this is our common struggle ... Saudi Arabia also wanted to send aircraft and join the air operations," he added.

As Syrian government forces are making gains lately on the battlegrounds, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and others have voiced readiness to deepen their military intervention in the war-torn country.

A Saudi military spokesman has pledged to send in ground troops in case of the U.S.-led coalition's agreement to launch a ground operation in Syria, while the UAE has agreed to dispatch special forces there, as claimed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed early this month that it had "reasonable grounds to suspect intensive training in Turkey for a military invasion" into Syrian. Endit