Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat –Syrian authorities on Monday claimed to have thwarted “ “an infiltration attempt by an armed terrorist group from the Turkish land into Syria”, however the Free Syrian Army [FSA] comprehensively denied that any terrorist groups are present within the ranks of the Syrian opposition, confirming that “the operations that are taking place within Syrian territory are being carried out by our elements who are responsible for protecting civilians and repelling the attacks of the regime’s military.”
The official Syrian news agency, SANA claimed that “the competent authorities on Monday foiled an infiltration attempt by an armed terrorist group from the Turkish land into Syria between Darkoush village, near Ghazaleh border village, and Salqin town, in Idlib countryside” adding “a number of terrorists [were] killed or wounded while others escaped to Turkey.”
SANA claimed that “medical teams in the Turkish side transported the dead and wounded terrorists to the Turkish land and offered medical aid to them.” SANA also quoted a source in Idlib as saying that Syrian authorities had “confiscated the terrorists’ weapons, including [assault] rifles, sniper rifles, RPG launchers, pump-action shotguns, developed communication devices, explosives and detonators.”
However Syrian army defector, Lieutenant Colonel Khalid Youssef al-Hammoud, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that he led an FSA operation into Syrian territory “which led to the destruction of a military outpost and the capture of all of those based there.” He stressed “yesterday [on Monday] I led a group of our soldiers in an operation targeting an al-Assad military outpost in the Badama region [of Idlib province], which is just 9 km from the Turkish border. We attacked a special forces outpost located beneath a [railway] bridge in retaliation against the operations carried out by al-Assad regime forces in Jabal al-Zawiya.”
Al-Hammoud revealed “we took control of the outpost and completely destroyed it; we captured all 17 soldiers who were based there, including First Lieutenant Abdul-Rahman al-Turki” adding “al-Turki was later shot in the kidney and killed by Syrian army forces as they fired upon us.”
Al-Hammoud also told Asharq Al-Awsat that “we also captured 10,000 Russian bullets, 5,000 machine gun rounds, an RPG launcher, 20 Russian assault rifles, 2 PKC machine guns, 20 explosives, 5 mines, 3 night-vision goggles, binoculars, and 18 bullet-proof vests.”
Responding to a question as to whether the Turkish authorities are officially permitting the FSA to carry out attacks on Syrian army targets from Turkish territory, Lieutenant Colonel al-Hammoud stressed that “this operation was not launched from Turkish territory, we entered Syrian territory to carry out logistical support for our fighters there and we then later planned and carried out this operation to destroy this military outpost.”