Turkey approves use of air bases by U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has approved the use of its air bases by U.S. and coalition aircraft in the fight against Islamic State, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, marking a major change in policy after a suicide bombing by the militants this week. The shift comes as Ankara - long a reluctant partner in the U.S.-led fight against Islamic State - launched air strikes against the militants in Syria on Friday for the first time. [ID:nL5N104068] U.S. defence officials on Thursday said Turkey had agreed to let it launch manned air strikes from an air base at Incirlik, close to the Syrian border, something Washington has repeatedly lobbied for. The United States had been limited to flying armed drones from Incirlik. But Turkey's Foreign Ministry went further on Friday, saying it had approved coalition strikes to be launched from its air bases. That would include air fields such as the one in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, from where it dispatched the F-16 fighters for the attack in Syria. "The cabinet of ministers has given approval for the stationing in our country's bases of manned and unmanned aircraft of the U.S. and other coalition countries ... taking part in air operations against Islamic State," it said, adding that Turkey's own aircraft would also be deployed. It said it expected cooperation among the air forces to increase the security of those living in Islamic State-controlled areas of Syria, although it did not make any reference to the creation of a "no fly zone", something that has been a source of speculation in local media. Thirty-two people, many of them Kurds, were killed in the suspected Islamic State suicide bombing in the Turkish town of Suruc on the Syrian border this week. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Daren Butler; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Alison Williams)