Turkey refutes claims of use of soil to attack Kobane
BEIRUT – The Associated Press
DHA photo
Turkey has vehemently denied that the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant (ISIL) used its soil to launch an attack on the Syrian border
town of Kobane, refuting widespread claims to the contrary.
Turkish
and Syrian Kurdish officials, as well as the Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights, said two ISIL suicide attacks targeting
the border post on Nov. 29 were launched from the Turkish side of the
border.
A Turkish government statement on Nov. 29 confirmed that
one of the suicide attacks involved a bomb-loaded vehicle that detonated
on the Syrian side of the border, but denied that the vehicle had
crossed into Kobane through Turkey, which would have been a first for
the extremist fighters.
“Claims that the vehicle reached the
border gate by crossing through Turkish soil are a lie,” read the
statement released from the government press office at the border town
of Suruç. “Contrary to certain claims, no Turkish official has made any
statement claiming that the bomb-loaded vehicle had crossed in from
Turkey. The security forces who are on alert in the border region have
... taken all necessary measures.”
Four ISIL militants blew
themselves up in Kobane, one detonating a car bomb at the Mürşitpınar
border crossing. At least 30 people were killed in clashes across the
town, a monitoring group and local officials said.
Turkey’s
pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) party also released a
statement and claimed the militants were using state grain depots on the
Turkish side of the border as a base from which to attack Kobane and
described their presence in an area patrolled by Turkish security forces
as a “scandal.” Video shot near the grain silos appeared to show armed
men believed to be from ISIL using the building.
