Incirlik Air Base
© AFP
A crowd has been protesting near the Incirlik military base in Adana, Turkey. The base houses US and NATO forces.

Regional television has been broadcasting the rally.

Over five thousand joined anti-American demonstrations yelling "death to US" and demanding an immediate closure of the Incirlik Air Base for over five hours on Thursday before Turkish police came in and broke up the protesters before they could arrive at major NATO military facility, home to nearly 90 US tactical nuclear weapons.

Protesters have been shouting anti-American and anti-Israel slogans, according to an RT stringer.


Police have been deployed to block the entrance to the base, according to reports.

American officials have informed US citizens that the consulate in the city will be closed at the time of the protest.


The protests were broken up after they began nearly five hours earlier with police first blocking the roadways heading to the Incirlik airbase and then subsequently demanding that demonstrators disband.

The base has made the headlines recently in connection with the failed coup in Turkey, and searches have been conducted at the facility by Turkish prosecutors and police. The air base commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, has been detained at Incirlik by the Turkish authorities along with over a dozen lower ranking officers, all accused of complicity in the attempted coup.

Incirlik is used by NATO and stores US tactical nuclear weapons. Washington has been using the base in its campaign against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in neighboring Syria and Iraq.