A bold yet ultimately unsuccessful kidnapping plot orchestrated by the Islamic State in Turkey raises new questions about the safety of U.S. troops and other American personnel stationed throughout the country.

The attempted abduction, reportedly carried out by Turkish gang members whom the Islamic State enticed with a promise of $500,000, targeted a popular Syrian rebel commander who had crossed into Turkey seeking refuge from ongoing violence across the border, according to a report by the Washington Post. It was a close call for the commander, who was shot in the stomach before managing to escape — and the clearest indication yet that the Islamic State has established a potent network inside Turkey, the Post reported.

The incident occurred in Sanliurfa about 220 miles east of Incirlik Air Base, which is home to thousands of U.S. airmen and their families. Air Force personnel also are stationed in Ankara and Izmir, and the Army maintains two Patriot missile batteries — a rotational force of about 250 soldiers — in Gaziantep, about 150 miles west of Sanliurfa.

An Air Force spokesman declined to say whether airmen in Turkey are taking extra security precautions in light of the kidnapping attempt.

"In regards to increased security measures, we do not comment due to operational security concerns. However, the safety of our airmen and their families remains one of our top priorities," Capt. William-Joseph J. Mojica told Military Times on Wednesday. "Additionally our airmen are trained to remain vigilant at all times, and we have programs in place for them to report suspicious activities."

No one is taking the threat lightly, though. Earlier this month, U.S. military officials in Europe told local-level commanders they should consider instructing U.S. troops not to wear their uniforms off base. Similarly, when the U.S. began airstrikes against the Islamic State in September, the U.S. embassy in Ankara issued a message telling Americans throughout Turkey to be cautious and monitor local news.

Asked Wednesday if U.S. troops in Turkey face any travel restrictions, Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, a spokesman for U.S. European Command, deferred comment to officials at the embassyin Ankara.

"We have allowed commanders leeway to adjust force protection measures depending on local conditions," Hicks said.

U.S. troops in Turkey should not wear their uniforms while off base and take other precautions so that they don't become an "easy target," said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative think tank based in Washington.

"In Turkey, you have this significant presence in the south of [Islamic State], of al-Qaida — and they're active in other parts of the country as well," he said. "I would definitely say that it is something that should be a concern, something that is on the radar of soldiers because they could, perhaps, be targeted."

But Andrew Liepman, a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, believes that homegrown radicals in Turkey pose more of a threat to U.S. service members than the Islamic State does. Liepman points to an incident Monday in Canada, in which a Muslim convert who sympathized with the Islamic State used his car to run over two Canadian soldiers, killing one.

Another Canadian soldier was killed during a shooting rampage Wednesday in Ottawa, the capital, though it's not immediately clear whether that incident was terrorism-related.

"My general sense is the guys who are fighting for ISIS right now are so busy on all of the various fronts that they've opened up against the Syrian Kurds and the Iraqi Kurds and the Syrian army and the other Syrian opposition members and the Iraqi army that they are pretty busy — they are fully engaged on multiple fronts," Liepman said. "So the likelihood that they are going to plot an attack American soldiers in Turkey or elsewhere seems to me less likely than what we're seeing in Canada."

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