On July 23, Turkish air force F-16s attacked Islamic State (IS) targets in northern Syria in response to a July 20 suicide bombing in Suruc and an IS attack on an army border patrol that killed one soldier. These events were followed on July 24 by the first Turkish aerial bombing since 2011 of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets, in northern Iraq.

The attack on IS was a single sortie against limited targets and closer to the Turkish border, while the one against the PKK was much different. The air force dispatched 75 F-16s and F-4E 2020s in three waves during July 24-26. Some 300 smart bombs were dropped in 185 sorties against approximately 400 PKK targets.

After the bombing runs, a foreign friend contacted me. “Turkey is bombing the PKK in northern Iraq. In northern Syria, Turkey is bombing IS in a way that will at the end of the day benefit the PYD [Democratic Union Party] and therefore the PKK. What is going on?” he asked. It is, indeed, a pertinent question.

There have been head-spinning developments in Turkey over the last 15 days. A US delegation led by retired Gen. John Allen, President Barack Obama’s envoy for dealing with IS, held critical talks in Ankara on July 7-8. The discussions concluded with what US officials called a “game changer” — a joint action plan involving Turkey, the United States and the US-led coalition against IS. The core of the plan calls for Turkey to become an active partner in the anti-IS coalition of about 60 countries. This shift was underlined in a July 24 statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry that said Turkish planes would henceforth actively participate in aerial attacks against IS.