ANKARA
Turkey and the U.S. have again reaffirmed their close cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria, or the ISIL.
The assurances were given in a telephonic conversation between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Barack Obama early Sunday morning, Turkish presidential sources said.
Both leaders discussed measures to halt the advance of the ISIL in Syria, including on the Syrian town of Kobani near the Turkish border.
The battle for the control of Kobani has been raging on since last mid-September when the ISIL besieged the town.
The humanitarian toll of the Syrian conflict and its impact on Turkey was also discussed between the two leaders. An estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees, including some 180,000 people from Kobani are being taken care of in camps across Turkey.
The two leaders spoke over the phone soon after Erdogan landed in Istanbul after his day-long official visit to Afghanistan Saturday.
Erdogan and Obama also touched upon the importance of cooperating closely to boost peace and stability in Afghanistan, where a NATO mission ended this year.
Turkey along with the U.S., Germany and Italy is expected to continue supporting the development of the Afghan National Security Forces.
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