Mar 27, 2014, NSNBC
While Turkish and Western – backed Jihadists in the region around Kassab are on the run from the Syrian armed forces, an MP for Turkey’s largest opposition party CHP alleged that the Syrian Army has drowned a Turkish drone over Kassab.
The Turkish Aydinlik Dayly (AD) cites Mehmed Ali Ediboglu, an MP for Turkey’s largest opposition party CHP, as saying that the Syrian armed forces have shot down a Turkish drone over the Syrian city of Kassab.
The downing of a Turkish drone has international implications, considering that Turkey is a core NATO member state.
Last week, a Syrian fighter jet was shot down over Kassab while pursuing Turkish backed insurgents. Eyewitnesses reported to nsnbc international that the Turkish military is targeting Syrian army positions with artillery and tank shells and that Turkish special forces had been observed in the area.
Yesterday it transpired that members of Turkey’s governing AKP and Turkey’s P.M. R.T. Erdogan may have been giving the order to shoot down a Syrian jet, three days before the incident happened.
The Syrian Arab Army and Turkish/Western – backed insurgents have been involved in heavy clashes in and around the city of Kassab in Syria’s Lattakia region. The Jihadist have been suffering heavy casualties. The fighting erupted on 21 March and continues.
Aydinlik Daily quotes local sources as saying that the Syrian Army also succeeded in neutralizing the commander of the so-called Kastal Maaf front, Mohammad al-Abdallah, and the leader of the Mostapha brigades in northern Lattakia.
Syrian armed forces have, reportedly, pursued terrorists who had infiltrated into the region via Turkey. The insurgents fled after suffering a defeat in in the Samra Mountains and in Kassab.
CHP Member of Parliament, Mehmed Ali Ediboglu, visited the Turkish – Syrian border area in Yayladagi after heavy clashes erupted in the region. Ediboglu stated that the Turkish military allows and controls insurgents moves while they are crossing the border to and from Syria.
Aydinlik Daily cites the Turkish MP as saying that social media report, that a Turkish drone had been shot down with a surface to air missile by the Syrian Army on March 22. Ediboglu added that Turkish jets also had crossed the border at several occasions, in order to gather data for the armed insurgents.
The Turkish MP said that the drone was shot down about 1.5 kilometers from the Syrian town of Kassab, over Syrian territory, and that the fact has been covered-up in Turkey because it could cause problems in terms of international law. Ediboglu called for an urgent investigation into the downing of a Syrian jet by Turkish F-16s last weekend as well as into the Turkish drone that was downed by the Syrian army. NATO could, arguably, be held accountable for the use of Turkish drones over Syrian territory because Turkey is a core member of the alliance.