29 Mar 2024
Tuesday 16 January 2018 - 11:27
Story Code : 290175

Turkey sends armored vehicles to southern border with Syria: Sources



Press TV - Turkey has reportedly dispatched a convoy of over 40 military vehicles and tanks to the southern regions along the Syrian frontier amid growing Ankara-Washington tensions over a US plan to create a border force at Turkish doorstep.

Military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Turkeys state-run Anadolu Agency on Monday that two dozen armored vehicles had entered the Reyhanli district of Turkeys Hatay Province with military jammer vehicles for reinforcement reasons.

Another 20-vehicle-military convoy, including tanks, had also arrived in the Viransehir district of Turkeys Sanliurfa Province to provide assistance to the military units already deployed to the Syrian border, the sources added.

The US infuriated its NATO partner Turkey on Sunday by announcing that Washington and a coalition of its allies purportedly fighting Daesh will work with US-backed militants of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to set up a new 30,000-strong border security force.

The force would operate along the Turkish border with Iraq and within Syria along the Euphrates River.

Washington also said it is supplying weapons and training to anti-Damascus militants of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), the SDFs main backbone. Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group and the Syrian arm of the homegrown Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting for independence over the past decades.

The US hadpromised to take back the weapons from Kurdish militants once Daesh falls.

Reacting to the US militarys announcement, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Washington is building an army of terror on the border with Syria, and that it is our responsibility to suffocate this effort before it is born.



He also threatened an attack on Afrin in the days ahead to clear the northwestern Syrian town of terrorists. The city is controlledby Kurdish militants.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu echoedErdogans remarks, urging the US to clarify its stance.
The USmust clarify which side it is on, whether it chooses to be with its allies or terror groups, he said, warning, We will take our own measures [against terror groups] regardless of who backs them; whether it is the USor other countries, it doesnt matter to us.
In August 2016, Turkeybegan a unilateral military intervention in northern Syria, code-named Operation Euphrates Shield. Ankara said the campaign was aimed at pushing Daesh terrorists from Turkey's border with Syria and stopping the advance of Kurdish forces.

Turkey ended its Syria offensive in March 2017, but has kept its military presence there.

Syria has voiced strong opposition to both Turkish and American military actions on its soil, repeatedly calling on the two NATO allies to pull their forces out.

The border force plan drew angry reactions from both Syria and Russia, with Damascus describing it as a blatant assault on its sovereignty.



Russia also said Washington was seeking to split the Syrian territory.

In fact, that means separation of a huge territory along the border with Turkey and Iraq,Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. The actions we currently see indicate that the United States does not want to keep the territorial integrity of Syria.

US after dividing Syria

Meanwhile, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on Monday denounced the US bid to form an armed militia as a desperate attempt to divide the country and prolong the crisis there.

He told Lebanons AlMayadeentelevision channel that the efforts by Washington and its agentsin the Persian Gulf region as well as Turkey to undermine Syrias unity and sovereignty were in vain amid the sweeping gainsby the Syrian army and its allies against terrorists on the battlefield.

Mekdad also expressed confidence in the Syrian peoples ability to foil the new conspiracy, adding that the presence of foreign forces on the Syrian soil without coordination with the Damascus government was illegitimate.

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