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 Turkey has long been a reluctant partner in the U.S.-led coalition
against Islamic State, emphasizing the need to oust Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad and saying Syrian Kurdish forces also pose a grave
security threat.
But the attacks on Islamic State targets inside Syria and the early
morning raids across 13 provinces at home, which also targeted
Kurdish militants, are among its most robust operations yet. One
official said Ankara had moved to "active defense" from a passive
strategy.
Turkey acted hours after officials in Washington said Ankara had
agreed to let U.S. jets launch air strikes from a base near the
Syrian border, dropping its earlier refusal to allow manned American
bombing raids from there. This followed a phone conversation between
President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan.
"We can't say this is the beginning of a military campaign, but
certainly the policy will be more involved, active and more
engaged," a Turkish government official told Reuters. "But action
won't likely be taken unprompted."
Turkey has faced increasing insecurity along its 900-km (560-mile)
border with Syria. A cross-border firefight on Thursday between the
Turkish army and Islamic State, which has seized large areas of
Syria and Iraq, left one militant and one soldier dead.
 Three F-16 fighter jets took off from a base in Diyarbakir,
southeast Turkey, early on Friday and hit two Islamic State bases
and one "assembly point" before returning, the Prime Minister's
office said in a statement.
One official said the raid has been launched from Turkish airspace.
"Turkish fighter jets didn't cross the Syrian border during the
operation," the official said, adding the targets had been across
the border from the Turkish town of Kilis.
Local people on the Turkish side of the frontier reported the sound
of the attack. "We heard something last night, but we couldn't tell
if it was air strikes or gunfire," said Zeki Polat, a 47-year-old
who was sitting in a teahouse in the village of Elbeyli.
The attacks are probably the first time that Turkey has publicly
said it bombed Islamic State in Syria, according to Rami
Abdulrahman, the head of the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights monitoring group. He said the aim of the strikes could also
be "to help rebels on the ground control areas near the border
instead of Kurdish forces".
Turkey has suffered a wave of violence in its largely Kurdish
southeast after a suspected Islamic State suicide bombing killed 32
people, many of them Kurds, in the town of Suruc on the Syrian
border this week.
"WITHOUT DISTINCTION"
Police rounded up more than 250 people in raids against suspected
Islamic State and Kurdish militants in Friday's raids, the prime
minister's office said, adding it was determined to fight all
"terrorist groups" equally.
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Local media reported that helicopters and more than 5,000 officers,
including special forces, were deployed in the operation.
Anti-terror police raided more than 100 locations across Istanbul
alone, broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV reported.
A press officer for the Istanbul police declined to comment.
But one senior official told Reuters: "This morning's air strike and
operation against terrorist groups domestically are steps taken as
preventive measures against a possible attack against Turkey from
within or from outside ... There has been a move to active defense
from passive defense."
Turkey has repeatedly said it would take any "necessary measures" to
protect itself from attack by both Islamic State and Kurdish
militants
U.S. defense officials said on Thursday that Turkey has agreed to
allow manned U.S. planes to launch air strikes against Islamic State
militants from an air base at Incirlik, close to the Syrian border.
U.S. drones are already launched from the base.
Turkish officials declined to comment on the report.
Obama and Erdogan agreed in their call on Wednesday to work together
to stem the flow of foreign fighters and secure Turkey's border.
The ability to fly manned bombing raids out of Incirlik against
targets in nearby Syria could be a big advantage. Such flights have
had to fly mainly from the Gulf.
Turkey's stance has frustrated some of its NATO allies, including
the United States, whose priority is fighting Islamic State rather
than Assad. The allies have urged Turkey to do more to prevent its
border being used as a conduit to Syria by foreign jihadists.
(Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Humeyra Pamuk,
Daren Butler and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul and Sylvia Westall in
Beirut; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by David Stamp)
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