ANKARA: Turkey has beefed up its border security, primarily due to threats posed by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Daesh.
PKK militants have infiltrated popular touristic Turkish cities such as Mugla, Fethiye and Koycegiz via the Syrian port city of Latakia, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Thursday.
Security forces killed five PKK militants in Mugla earlier that day, with two militants reportedly at large in the same area.
Security forces are also continuing counterterror operations and airstrikes in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq against PKK hideouts, ammunition depots and militants preparing for possible attacks.
Meanwhile, Turkish police carried out raids against suspected Daesh cells in big cities such as Istanbul, Konya and Izmir.
Turkey recently completed a 688-km-long security wall along its border with Syria. Twenty-one high-security, bulletproof and portable watchtowers are being built in the area, and 10 military officers will reside in each of them.
In order to intervene along the border in emergency situations, passenger routes will be built at 10-km intervals, especially in areas where Daesh is believed to have placed handmade explosive traps.
Sertac Canalp Korkmaz, a researcher in security studies at ORSAM, a think tank in Ankara, said it is not the first time PKK militants have tried to attack coastal tourist hotspots.
“However, recent security measures at the Syria border, and cross-border operations against PKK hideouts in northern Iraq, have pushed terror organizations to infiltrate Turkey via different routes, or by using proxy cells inside the country,” Korkmaz told Arab News.
“But the latest security measures in the coastal zones show that Turkey’s intelligence capacity in counterterrorism efforts has greatly increased.”
He said the high-tech border security measures have led to the PKK changing tactics, such as using armed drones.
“The security void in Iraq and Syria, due to geopolitical tectonic changes and the lack of a common counterterrorism approach by the international community, is being filled by terror groups and increasing security threats in the region,” he added.
Turkey’s military recently placed anti-drone systems at some border posts against possible attacks by terror groups.
Metin Gurcan, a former military officer and security analyst at the Istanbul Policy Center, said he thinks the PKK’s presence in the western coastal cities may not be heavily armed.
“This might be an intentional strategy by the terror group to divert the military from the south-eastern provinces toward western cities,” Gurcan told Arab News.
“Military zones in Turkey are vulnerable to vertical assaults from the air. Anti-drone defense systems should be integrated into all military levels, until the squadron,” he said.
“Walls and security towers can contribute to security to a great extent, but it would be naive to expect that they’d stop all illegal crossings at once.”
Turkey beefs up border security against Daesh, PKK
Turkey beefs up border security against Daesh, PKK
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
