Families of the U.S.-led coalition’s personnel, who were deployed to Turkey's Adana İncirlik Airbase within the fight against the Islamic State (IS), left the base, after Washington's order to evict families from Adana for security purposes.

The U.S. has issued a landing order on March 29, 2016, for families of the personnel in the 39th Air Base Wing (39 ABW) of the U.S. Air Force in Adana, as well as the personnel stationed in İzmir and Muğla. Recently, the entire of the families have evacuated the base.

“On March 29, 2016, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Department of State, approved the ordered departure of families of service members and of Department of Defense civilian personnel currently stationed in Adana, Izmir and Mugla, Turkey, to include those stationed at Incirlik Air Base” said the statement released via the website of the 39th Air Base Wing.

Amongst the U.S. personnel and families, around 1,000 women and children flied back to their countries since September 2015, while some 670 women and children went back to Germany last weekend, during the latest evacuation.

“The decision to move our families and civilians was made in consultation with the Government of Turkey, our State Department and our Secretary of Defense” said Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, U.S. European Command commander. “We understand that this is disruptive to our military families, but we must keep them safe and ensure the combat effectiveness of our forces to support our strong ally Turkey in the key fight against terrorism” Gen. Breedlove added.

Meanwhile, 39th ABW commander Col. John Walker stressed, “We recognize that being uprooted like this in such a hastily fashion is troublesome”.

“Our families are important to us, as are those who must stay behind on Incirlik to continue the fight. We are doing and will continue to do everything that we can to make this transition as painless as possible” he said.

“Once notified of the ordered departure, members of the 39th Air Base Wing worked around the clock to enable the departure of dependents from Incirlik in an orderly and timely fashion. Many personnel worked days on end to ensure that medical, financial, emotional and logistical needs were met. The majority of this took place during a 72-hour period as families were moved first to Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and then on to a safe haven location within the United States and other authorized locations, using a combination of military and chartered aircraft” the statement explained.