Turkey's Erdogan says ground operation needed to defeat IS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned that the Syrian border town of Kobane is on the verge of falling to militants, saying a ground operation was needed to defeat the Islamic State advance. 

"The terror will not be over... unless we cooperate for a ground operation," Erdogan said in a televised speech in the eastern city of Gaziantep, adding that air strikes were not enough on their own. 

"Months have passed but no results have been achieved. Kobane is about to fall," he added during the address made in front of a crowd of Syrian refugees. 

Turkey last week won parliamentary approval to stage a military intervention in Syria and Iraq, and has been in talks with the United States about the role it will play in the campaign. 

“The air strikes will not stop the terrorist [Islamic State]. We need a no-fly zone, safe havens and to train and equip the moderate opposition in Syria,” Erdogan added.

Turkish troops have been amassing on the border near Kobane but the signals from Ankara have been mixed. 

Last week, Pime Minister Ahmet Davatoglu, said that Turkey would not let Kobane fall. However, in an interview with CNN last night, Davatoglu appeared to make intervention conditional on the US-led anti-IS coalition expanding its mandate and committing itself to removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad who is embroiled in a more than three-and-a-half year bloody uprising against his rule. 

“We are ready to do everything if there is a clear strategy that after [Islamic State], we can be sure our border is protected,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday. 

“If al-Assad stays in power and [Islamic State] goes then another radical organisation may come in. Our approach should be comprehensive, inclusive and combined.”

Protests spur across Turkey

Pro-Kurdish protesters clashed overnight Tuesday with police in several Turkish cities, including Istanbul, in a show of anger against the lack of action by the government against jihadists fighting for a key Syrian town.

The ruling AKP government has so far not intervened militarily against IS militants fighting for the Kurdish border town of Kobani, to the fury of Turkey's Kurds.

Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party, the People's Democratic Party (HDP), late Monday called for street protests "against IS attacks and the AKP's stance on Kobani."

In Istanbul's Gazi neighbourhood which has a large Kurdish population, protesters blocked a main highway, hurled Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police who fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse them.