SANLIURFA, Turkey — Turkey’s parliament Thursday overwhelmingly endorsed a measure authorizing military intervention in Iraq and Syria and permitting foreign troops to launch attacks from Turkish territory, potentially setting the stage for a deeper level of involvement by Ankara in the international war against the radical Islamic State group.

It was not immediately clear, however, how far Turkey is prepared to go to support the military effort against the Islamic State, a heavily armed al-Qaida offshoot also known as ISIS or ISIL. The effort risks further complicating Turkey’s already tangled relationships with its own restive Kurdish population, the million or more Syrian refugees in Turkey and even the extremists themselves.

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Turkish soldiers stand on a hilltop overlooking the fighting positions between Syrian Kurds and Islamic State militants west of Kobane in Syria, near Suruc, Turkey, on Thursday. The Associated Press

Turkish officials said they expect no immediate change to Turkey’s existing policy of facilitating humanitarian efforts to aid needy Syrians inside and outside Syria and supporting moderate Syrian rebels battling the Damascus government.

“I don’t think there will be any imminent action,” said a Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The authorization, passed on a vote of 298 to 98, came amid mounting calls for a reluctant Turkey to assume a more active role in a U.S.-led coalition formed to confront the Islamic State. Rapid advances by the group’s forces toward the Syrian-Kurdish border town of Kobane in the hours before the vote further escalated the pressure.

A Turkish analyst familiar with the thinking of Turkish officials said, however, that while the government recognizes that the Islamic State is a growing threat to its security, it is in no mood to rush to support a war that does not include as its goal the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“Turkey is going to do the bare minimum to get America off its back,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But not so much that it will align Turkey in what will be seen as a Western coalition formed not to fight Assad – as Turkey has wanted for a long time – but to fight what Turkey regards as misguided Islamic youths.”

Turkey’s absence from the fight has become increasingly conspicuous as Islamic State fighters bear down on Kobane and the United States steps up airstrikes elsewhere in Syria, with which Turkey shares a long border. Turkey’s reluctance was initially explained away by the need to protect the safety of 49 Turkish diplomats and family members kidnapped in Iraq by the Islamic State.

But the release of the hostages last month has so far brought about little more than an increase in Turkish rhetoric against the Islamic State, said Aaron Stein, an associate fellow with the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

“There’s not much new coming out of Turkey, but it’s being advertised as something new, perhaps because they’ve been beaten up so badly for their ISIS policy,” he said.

The Obama administration has exerted intense pressure on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to allow the United States to use its existing base at Incirlik to launch attacks against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, but Ankara has given no indication it is willing to agree.

Rather, Turkish officials have talked in vague terms about intervening unilaterally along the border to set up safe zones for civilians, a proposal that U.S. officials do not support.

Kurdish leaders, meanwhile, have issued urgent appeals to Turkey and the United States to protect Kobane. By nightfall Thursday, Islamic State fighters had reached the outskirts of the town.

“It is very dangerous, and Kobane could be lost at any time,” said Ibrahim Kader, an activist monitoring the fighting from just across the border.

The militants’ advance is unfolding in full view of the Turkish military, which has rushed reinforcements to the area but has not tried to intervene. There have also been few U.S. airstrikes in the area.

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