The families of US personnel left İncirlik airbase

ADANA – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

The families of U.S. troops and civilian personnel stationed at İncirlik Air Base in Adana left the base on April 2 and 3, after an order by the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department to leave several areas of Turkey for their security.

“Our families are very important to us. In order for us to continue fighting, they need to stay back. We are doing the best we can to make the evacuation operation as easy as possible,” said Col. John Walker, noting that the evacuation of the families was a hard process. 

Some 670 women and children were evacuated from İzmir, Muğla and Adana and taken to Germany in accordance with the issued order, meaning no civilian who is a family member of U.S. soldiers and civilian personnel has been left at İncirlik Air Base, a key base in the efforts of the coalition fighting against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria. 

The number of civilians who have now left the airbase has reached 1,000 since the September 2015 recommendation to leave the country.

The families who reached the U.S. base in Germany will later back move to their countries. 

The order by the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department followed a September 2015 recommendation to leave the country, but there was no mandatory order at the time.

“This decision allows for the deliberate, safe return of family members from these areas due to continued security concerns in the region,” the Pentagon said in a statement on March 29.