US Wants ISIS-Free "Safe Zones" in Northern Syria

The US government and Turkey have agreed on a new partnership to fight ISIS in northern Syria along the Turkish border that involves flying armed US aircraft out of Turkey for the first time in this war and creating a ISIS-free zones along the border region to provide relief for refugees and rebel-fighting forces.

The Pentagon said today it hopes it can use the strategic air bases to create "ink blots on the map" where ISIS does not exist and over time grow those safe areas in size and number.

"There are going to be different places where you will see ISIL driven out and peaceful, moderate ... people moving in," Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said today, using another word for ISIS. "And we want those areas of land to grow."

The administration made clear that this new agreement with Turkey won't involve the creation of military "no-fly zone." State Department spokesman John Kirby said there would be little use in that around the border region. "There is no opposition in the air, when coalition aircraft are flying in that part of Syria," Kirby said. "The Assad regime is not challenging us; ISIL doesn't have airplanes."

The Pentagon would not speculate about a scenario in which Assad's aircraft fly into one of these safe zones or ink blots, but it made clear again that the US will not be there to fight Assad nor is that part of the deal with the Turks.

The partnership could put the Obama administration in a difficult position because of Turkey's recent attacks on Kurdish militant groups, some of whom are allied with the U.S. in the fight against ISIS. In recent days Turkey bombed a Kurdish militant group known as the PKK in retaliation for suicide attacks it launched against Turkish soldiers.

But both the Pentagon and State Department said today that Turkey has the right defend itself against the PKK, which the US has designated a foreign terrorist organization.

Davis said the Secretary of Defense Ash Carter could decide to begin flight operations out of Turkey within the coming weeks.