The Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., has published a report warning that American nuclear weapons stored at Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base could be captured by “terrorists or other hostile forces.”
“Whether the US could have maintained control of the weapons in the event of a protracted civil conflict in Turkey is an unanswerable question,” said the report, alluding to the recent coup attempt in Turkey.
“From a security point of view, it’s a roll of the dice to continue to have approximately 50 of America’s nuclear weapons stationed at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey,” co-author Laicie Heeley told AFP.
“There are significant safeguards in place… But safeguards are just that, they don’t eliminate risk. In the event of a coup, we can’t say for certain that we would have been able to maintain control,” she added. READ MORE
