DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Turkish forces have sent new troops to Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib to prop up their allied militants as they seek to consolidate their grip on areas under their control.
Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that a convoy of dozens of trucks, carrying various types of weapons, military equipment, logistical supplies and cement blocks, crossed the Bab al-Hawa border crossing on Monday and headed toward terrorist strongholds in the mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya.
Turkey had already dispatched truckloads of military and logistical equipment to northern Syria last October.
SANA, citing local sources, reported at the time that a convoy comprising scores of trucks, laden with sophisticated weapons, heavy artillery batteries, anti-armor munitions and advanced personnel carriers, crossed into Syrian territories on October 31, 2020 and moved towards the city of Ras al-Ayn and surrounding areas.
Moreover, Turkish-based Takfiri militants have seized vast areas of olive fields and squatted several residential buildings in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo.
SANA, citing local sources, said members of the so-called Levant Front terrorist group have expropriated agricultural land planted with more than 360 olive trees in the village of Mereske north of the Kurdish-populated city of Afrin.
The sources added that the extremists plan to transfer olive crops over the border, and sell the produce to Turkish merchants.
Moreover, Turkish-sponsored militants have forcibly evacuated several families from their homes in the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood of Afrin city, and occupied their houses.
This comes as rival Turkish-based militants have turned against each other in Syria’s north.
Damascus has slammed the moves by Ankara as violations of Syria’s territorial integrity.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have said Damascus will respond through all legitimate means available to the ongoing ground offensive by Turkish forces in the northern part of the Arab country.