Turkey Moves Tanks to Hilltops Overlooking Syria
Turkey Moves Tanks to Hilltops Overlooking Syria - Bloomberg
Turkey’s government threatened to respond to any further attacks from Syria, after shelling across the frontier last week killed five Turkish citizens.
“Turkey will retaliate if Syria violates its border again,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a news conference yesterday in Istanbul. “We will do what’s necessary.”
Turkey deployed tanks and missile-defense systems on hilltops overlooking Syria last week, the state-run Anatolia news agency said, hours after Turkish jet fighters confronted a Syrian helicopter that flew close to the border. Turkey has threatened to target Syrian forces if they pose a security risk. Syria downed a Turkish fighter jet in June.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the United Nations Security Council yesterday for its failure to agree on decisive steps to end the 19-month civil war in Syria, the Associated Press reported.
More than 30,000 people have died nationwide during the 19- month civil war, according to opposition groups, and the violence is becoming more indiscriminate. President Bashar al- Assad’s forces are using cluster bombs, which detonate and then disperse smaller bomblets, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
“Syria’s disregard for its civilian population is all too evident in its air campaign, which now apparently includes dropping these deadly cluster bombs into populated areas,” Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch, said in a report