Frontier front: Syrian rebels trapped near Turkey

Published time: February 23, 2012 11:58
Edited time: February 23, 2012 18:52

Syrian frontier guards are battling militants who have infiltrated from Turkey, as the army deploys troops to quash hostile forces trapped in the mountains. The clashes highlight claims outside forces are actively fueling the conflict in Syria.

­North to the Syrian city of Aleppo (340 kilometers from Damascus) frontier guards have eliminated several subversives, captured some and sent others fleeing when a group of militants made an attempt to infiltrate the country from Turkey, reports ITAR-TASS news agency.

Troop reinforcements are being brought to Idlib province on the Syrian-Turkish border to crush rebels from the so-called Free Syrian Army located in El Baida settlement, some 30 kilometers from the Turkish border. Syrian Arab news agency (SANA) reports that servicemen captured five dangerous terrorists, including one high on the wanted list, Muhammed Suleiman.

These bandits were known for their brazen crimes, the report says. They blocked roads to kill soldiers and officers of Syrian army, kidnapped people for ransom, and attacked food and fuel convoys.

The latest assault by insurgents who have crossed the border from Turkey follows a litany of accusations directed at several foreign powers, specifically Ankara, in arming and directing the Syrian opposition.

On Tuesday, Jordan-based AlBawaba news website reported over 10,000 Libyans were being trained in a closed-off zone in Jordan before being sent off to Syria to fight alongside the opposition.

The site also claimed Saudi Arabia and Qatar were paying the anti-Gaddafi mercenaries US$1,000 a month to take up arms against Assad.

Concurrently, several Iranian news sources report that some 50 Turkish officers detained in Syria admitted to being trained by Israeli Special Forces to help destabilize the Syrian regime.

In December, FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds said American and NATO forces had been training Syrian rebels in southeastern Turkish city of Hakkari since May of last year, Press TV reported.

Edmonds further stated US was actively smuggling arms into Syria from Incirlik military base in Turkey, as well as financing Syrian rebels.

The previous month, Russia’s Kommersant daily had also reported on operations being directed from Turkish territory.

While many of those reports remain unsubstantiated, the fact that the Syrian National Council (SNC) was itself formed in Istanbul in August of last year only highlights Turkey’s role in the conflict.

Dr. Marcus Papadopoulos, a political analyst from Britain's Politics First online magazine, told RT how the Western interests are executed via the SNC.

“They [the SNC] supply the Western governments and media with information – damning information, in their opinion, – on President Assad and his government. The Western objective is the regime change and that is the main role of the SNC. A lot of caution should be attached to them.”

Turkey’s zero-tolerance policy towards Syria has only furthered speculation that a quid pro quo relationship with Washington seeks to establish Turkey’s place as a leading regional power.

But Dr. Papadopoulos believes that foreign meddling in Syria could lead to grave consequences for the entire region.

“Any conflict in the Middle East has the potential to turn the entire region into a vast firestorm. The fact that the American and British governments are implicitly encouraging the Syrian opposition is only making things worse in Syria and is only resulting in more casualties and tragedies.”

Watch RT's full interview with Dr. Marcus Papadopoulos


Comments (37)

Pham 02.03.2012 08:58

had a fceire battle in a German Forum with some Hasbara stooges regarding the expulsion of the Zionist ambassador from Ankara , but now I am back again.I read the FP article which Dr. Soros had sent you and your reply to him.In my vanished post I had written , that I completely share the opinion of our esteemed empty and would endorse each and every point.( Of course I am far away from that point to link myself to our most knowledgable empty ma nokhodi hastim )In my opinion Ayatollah Khamenei has immensely grown with his tasks and the heavy burden on his shoulder over the last couple of years and I am amazed if not astonished by his unshakable steadfastness in the MOST complicated and complex country in the world under severe domestic and international circumstances.My simple explanation is that Ayatollah Khamenei is a TRUE believer and a most appropriate successor of the late Imam Khomeini (RA) and God Almighty is with him.I think that during the last 10 months I have not missed a single speech of Khamenei and I regret to have ignored' him in all the years before.It is this overall sustainable feeling that you have , that with him you do not need to worry about any topic in state affairs whatsoever , a feeling which the Italian , German , American , Greek , Spanish , Irish , Portugese etc. people ( or sheeple :-)) probably do NOT have.In short Khane Bi Sahab Nist Regarding your grandios 9/11 post , this was really not fair , now I have to read it 10 times to understand half of it :-)

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borysd (unregistered) 27.02.2012 15:04

Turkey might get involved! Turkey being part of NATO would get plenty of help (and a promise of fast track to the E.U.)
"Friends of Syria" are holding their second meeting in Turkey next month where they will probably recognize the Syrian National Council as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people...then the Syrian National Council will receive arms and "communication" advisers. The third meeting of the "Friends of Syria" will be hosted by France.
I don`t think Turkey will stand by if Syria starts butchering Muslim refugees at their border.
By the end of this month a third American carrier battle-group centered on the USS Enterprise will join the two existing battle-groups on station, the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Abraham Lincoln. In addition the US has yet another group available at short notice from its Pacific fleet. The French carrier-strike group centered on the Charles de Gaulle is also expected in the region....plenty to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria for the Turks.
The Big question would be "will Iran back their talk with action" ?

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Hermann Helmholtz 24.02.2012 07:29

Queen Pilay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - has a sealed list of Syrian personnel destined for the gallows. She will only make them known at her imperial pleasure, by dispatching through her messenger to the Lord Chief justice with instructions: “Off with their heads!”

Is keeping the list an attempt to terrify every Syrian who is fighting foreign terrorists and local insurgents? If so, how can this be a professional conduct? How can they expect the Syrian regime to, even, give her the time of day?

She is not alone at the UN Secretariat playing these lethal games. Ban Moon Ky, Yukiya Amano of the IAEA proved past masters at it.

One recalls the attack of temporary deafness that Mr. Ban Moon Ky suffered as Israel was pounding Gaza with phosphorous bombs, and his current inability to hear the scream of the people of Bahrain for help?

One recalls the search of Amano of the IAEA once he was ensconced, in the old and discredited Iran files, bringing life some we learnt from the US that they were forged in the US!

One needs not to go that far with Her Imperial majesty. In December last, she produced a number of for those “killed by the Syrian regime.” She was asked for the missing proof in the submission: the list of the dead, and their addresses. None was available! No names, no addresses. It happens that the number was the same number used by the 'Syrian National Council'!

Did she eat humble pie? Never! Royalty do not do that. They just continue to lie. The spokesperson of her spokesperson's spokesperson announced: "We will no longer provide the number of dead; it is difficult to verify!"

You might say “good enough!” But three days ago, Her Imperial Majesty screamed through another sequence of spokespersons that the “number of dead have now reached 7000!”

Probably job descriptions at the UN Secretariat do state: "Ready to lie when asked to!" but then, how many would really want such a job!

The farce continues!

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