Turkey’s Euphrates Shield op gets backing from 14 foreign military chiefs

RIYADH

DHA photo

Military leaders from 14 countries on Jan. 15 agreed to support Turkey’s ongoing Euphrates Shield operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Syria. 

“They confirmed their support for the Euphrates Shield operation to fight the Daesh terrorist organization,” said a final communique released on Jan. 15 following the Conference of Global Coalition in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIL. 

“[They] denounced the crimes being committed by the terror group against the innocents and against humanity, calling for taking the necessary measures and means to wipe out Daesh terrorist organization and guarantee preventing it from spreading in the neighboring countries and regions,” it added. 

Turkish Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar was among the military chiefs of 14 nations; Saudi Arabia, U.S., Jordan, Tunisia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman and Nigeria, who participated in the meeting, where they discussed ways to enhance the efforts of the anti-ISIL coalition to paralyze the capabilities of the group in the Middle East.        

“The member countries of the coalition discussed upgrading coordination among the representatives of the participating countries and promoting efforts of the international coalition which has recently achieved significant progress in its operations aimed at paralyzing the terrorist organization’s capabilities as well as ways to enhance the participating Arab and Muslim countries in the coalition and identify and understand the current challenges and emergency developments in the fight against the Daesh terrorist organization,” the communique said. 

Turkey has taken steps to crack down on ISIL since 2014 and more recently after the jihadist group launched a series of suicide bombings in Turkey. 

The Euphrates Shield operation began in late August 2016 to improve security, and eliminate terror threats from ISIL as well as other terror groups along Turkey’s border with Syria.