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Turkish army repels some 100 smugglers on Syrian border

17 September 2013 20:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Turkish army has said it repelled up to 100 smugglers on the Turkish-Syrian border, APA reports quoting Todays Zaman.

A statement the Turkish General Staff released on Tuesday said mobile army units on patrol near NarlÄ±ca OÄŸulpÄ±nar border post in Hatay spotted up to 100 smugglers on horseback at 21:00 on Monday.

It stated that the smugglers waited for some time on the Syrian side of the border in a bid to enter Turkey, adding that troops made a number of announcements in Turkish and Arabic for the group to disperse. The statement noted that the smugglers refused to heed the warnings and tried to storm the border from four different points.

Turkish army said troops, sniper teams, several tactical and advanced armored vehicles, one armored vehicle carrying military personnel and a tank were deployed to the border areas to prevent the smugglers from entering into Turkey. It said additional units were also deployed from nearby military posts.

“Smuggling attempts were prevented as a result of measures taken by the military,” the statement concluded.

Monday's incident follows similar confrontations between troops and smugglers in recent months.

On Aug. 25, the Turkish army said it repelled up to 4,000 smugglers on the Turkish-Syrian border in nine hours of clashes. Ten days earlier, nearly 3,000 smugglers also tried to storm the Turkish border. A week earlier, the military announced troops had come under fire from a nearby village on the Turkish side of the border as they confronted a group of 750-1,000 smugglers on foot and 150 on horseback. A day before that, a soldier was badly injured after a small group of smugglers confronted by the troops set diesel containers on fire. In another incident earlier last month, 18 Turkish soldiers were injured after a group of smugglers, attempting to bring diesel from war-torn Syria into Turkey through a village in southeastern Hatay's ReyhanlÄ± district, set diesel drums on fire to escape capture by the military.

Smuggling of fuel and goods has continued for years in Hatay, but the recent hike in frequency of incidents of confrontation with the military as well as the large number of people involved in such incidents have put the Syrian border once again under the spotlight.