Omar Sanadiki/Reuters
U.S.-led coalition jets assisted Turkish-backed forces in a military operation against ISIS in Syria last week, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The operation in the Syrian town of al-Bab comes as Turkish forces have spent weeks battling the terror group in a bid to retake the town. “Last week, there was a request... when some Turkish forces came under fire for air support and there were flights conducted by the coalition at that time,” Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook was cited as saying by Agence France-Presse. “My understanding of that was there was not a strike specifically, but there were aircraft involved in that effort, a visible show of force if you will, by coalition aircraft,” he said, stressing that coalition forces did not use weapons or launch any airstrikes. U.S.-led coalition planes had previously refused to directly assist the Turkish army in al-Bab, prompting Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to complain about U.S. reluctance to help eradicate ISIS from al-Bab.