Turkish police on Friday used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a protest by hundreds of people in Istanbul to denounce violence by Islamic State group jihadists, an AFP photographer reported.

Some 500 people turned out for the protest in the Kadikoy district on the Asian side of Istanbul to condemn Monday's suicide bombing in Suruc blamed on IS that killed 32 pro-Kurdish activists close to the Syrian border.

Turkey's air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria, and Ankara's consent to the U.S. using a key airbase to launch attacks on the jihadists, mark a break with its previous "complacency", analysts said.

The new strategy effectively makes Turkey a full member of the U.S.-led coalition against IS jihadists but raises the risk of cross-border reprisals and could give a stronger hand to Kurdish militants, they said.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed Friday Turkey would continue operations against Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdish militants after it bombed IS targets in Syria and made nearly 300 arrests.

"The operations that were started today are not a single event but a process," Davutoglu told reporters in Ankara in televised comments.

Turkey's leaders on Friday confirmed a landmark deal with the United States on the use of a key air base near Syria, after Washington said American jets would be able to use the facility to launch raids against jihadists.

Hurriyet daily said the agreement for U.S. planes to use Incirlik base in southern Turkey provided for a 90-kilometer (56 mile) no-fly zone between the Syrian towns of Marea and Jarabulus to the east.

Turkey on Friday detained 251 people in coordinated nationwide dawn raids against suspected Islamic State (IS) jihadists and Kurdish militants following a wave of deadly violence in the country, the prime minister's office said.

"A total of 251 people were taken into detention for belonging to terrorist groups," the statement said, adding that the raids took place in 13 provinces across Turkey.

Turkey on Friday vowed to press on with operations against Islamic State (IS) in Syria and other militant groups, after its war planes bombed the jihadists' positions for the first time.

Following the pre-dawn air raids on the IS targets in Syria, Turkish police arrested almost 300 suspected members of IS and pro-Kurdish militant groups nationwide, in one of Turkey's biggest recent crackdowns on extremists. 

One Turkish policeman was shot dead and another badly wounded in an attack by armed men in Turkey's majority Kurdish-city of Diyarbakir, hospital sources told AFP.

The attack happened while the police were carrying out a routine traffic check in the southeastern city, a day after two police were shot dead in an attack claimed by Kurdish militants, reports said.

A militant group allied to Turkey's outlawed Kurdish party has shot dead in Istanbul an alleged member of the Islamic State group who had fought in Syria, media said Thursday.

The reports come amid soaring tensions in Turkey following Monday's suicide bombing in the town of Suruc on the border with Syria that killed 32 and that the authorities blamed on IS.

A leading Turkish daily has fired one of its most senior commentators after he sent a tweet bitterly critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's policy on Islamic State (IS) jihadists, reports said Thursday.

The Milliyet daily said that commentator Kadri Gursel's employment had been terminated as the tweet was not in line with its editorial policies.

The number of al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and Islamic State group militants has dropped after the terrorists were besieged by the Lebanese army in the eastern Bekaa Valley and by Syrian troops and Hizbullah fighters on the other side of the border, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday.

Al-Nusra gunmen are located in the area of al-Kassarat in Wadi Hmeid on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, which is a zone blockaded by the Lebanese army from the west and the Syrian military and Hizbullah in the east.