Turkey’s Air Force conducted an operation of patrolling the Turkish-Syrian border, the Turkish general staff announced on Monday according to TASS. “Twelve F-16 jets carried out patrol flights along the Turkish-Syrian border” on Dec. 6, the Turkish statement said. Three Turkish Navy boats and a mobile radar are tasked with controlling the Syrian border from the sea.
Since November 24, when Turkish fighter jets downed Russia’s Su-24M bomber in Syria near the border with Turkey, Turkey’s Air Force reduced its activity near the border area, and there were no Turkish air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria, TASS reported.
The Turkish Army concentrates the bulk of its forces on the border with Syria, TASS claims. This mobilization of military units to the Syrian border began some three years ago, when the Syrian civil war started spilling across the border into Turkish territory.
Ankara is planning a major joint Air Force operation with the US against ISIS in the near future, according to TASS.