WASHINGTON — In a fresh test for U.S. coalition-building efforts, Turkey is launching airstrikes against Kurdish rebels inside its borders this week despite pleas from the Obama administration to instead focus on an international campaign to destroy Islamic State militants wreaking havoc in the region.
Media reports about the Turkish strikes surfaced Tuesday as President Barack Obama and military chiefs from more than 20 nations gathered in Washington in a show of unity against the Islamic State group.
“This is an operation that involves the world against ISIL,” Obama declared, referring to the militant group by one of its many names.
The Turkish airstrikes occurred Monday and marked the country’s first major strikes against Kurdish rebels on its own soil since peace talks began two years ago. The strikes came amid anger among the Kurds in Turkey, who accuse the government there of standing by while Syrian Kurds are being killed by Islamic State militants in the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani.
The Islamic State militants also have targeted Kurds in Iraq, who have to some extent been able to hold off their advances.
The U.S. has been pressing Turkey — a NATO ally — to take a more active role in the campaign to destroy the Islamic State group, but the Turks have said they won’t join the fight unless the U.S.-led coalition also targets Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government. The Obama administration sees those as separate fights and has no appetite to go to war against Assad.