US urges Turkey to do more in fight against ISIS

Davos: US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter has said Turkey could do more in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) militant group.

"I would like Turkey to do more," Xinhua cited Carter as saying on Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos about whether Turkey had done enough to help the US.

According to Carter, Turkey is a long term friend and the US is strongly supportive and stands with it in terms of defence of its own territory.

Carter said he was grateful to Turkey which was helping the US fight the IS by for example hosting the US aircraft in Turkey.

"But the reality is that it shares a big border with Iraq and Syria, which has been porous to foreign fighters going in both directions and I think the Turks can do more," he said.

Turkey was on the list of countries that can make distinctive, unique and necessary contributions to the defeat of IS, he added.