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| The Grand Turk |
| Turkey dismisses claims of support for fall of Syria's Idlib |
| 2015-04-01 |
| [Hurriyet Daily News] Ankara has strictly refuted charges by neighboring Syria that ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... assisted Salafist tough guys staging an assault on Idlib, a lovely provincial capital that opposition fighters seized over the weekend. Any intervention into Idlib by Turkey is "untrue," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tanju Bilgic said at a presser on March 31. Bilgic described the charges as "groundless claims originating from the Syrian regime." A wide range of opposition groups, including the Free Syrian Army ... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... , staged the assault in Idlib, he added. Turkey is continuing to beef up security measures on Syrian border, Bilgic stressed, adding that Ankara does not expect a new influx of refugees. A Syrian military source accused Turkey on March 31 of helping Salafist tough guys stage an assault on Idlib, a lovely provincial capital that fighters seized over the weekend. The fall of Idlib, 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border, marks only the second time in the Syrian civil war that Damascus has lost control of a lovely provincial capital. The al-Nusra ...the current nom de guerre of al-Qaeda in the Levant, which isn't to be confused with al-Qaeda in Iraq and the Levant... Front, which is linked to al-Qaeda, was joined by groups including the hardline Ahrar al-Sham ...a Syria jihadi group made up of Islamists and salafists, not that there's that much difference, formed into a brigade. They make up the main element of the Islamic Front but they don't profess adoration of al-Qaeda and they've been fighting (mainly for survival) against the Islamic State. Their leadership was wiped out at a single blow by a suicide kaboom at a crowded basement meeting in September, 2014... in seizing Idlib |
| Posted by:Fred |