DAMASCUS - Syria accused Turkey of hostility on Thursday after it intercepted a passenger jet en route from Moscow on suspicion it was carrying illegal cargo, in a move also infuriating top Damascus ally Russia.
Turkey scrambled two jets on Wednesday to force down the Syrian Air Airbus A-320 en route from Moscow after reportedly receiving intelligence it was carrying military cargo for the Assad regime. Damascus said the interception was ‘hostile and reprehensible’ and ‘another sign of the hostile policies of the Erdogan government, which harbours (rebels) and bombs Syrian territory,” referring to Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
It furiously demanded Turkey return the cargo it had seized at Ankara airport.
Russia, a top Damascus ally and its biggest arms supplier, said Ankara had put the lives of passengers at risk by forcing it to land in the Turkish capital, and denied it was carrying arms or military equipment. “We are concerned that this emergency situation has put at risk the lives and safety of passengers, who included 17 Russian citizens,” Russia’s foreign ministry said. “The Russian side continues to insist on an explanation of the reasons for such actions by the Turkish authorities.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara had seized “illegal cargo” from the plane, adding Turkey would hold on to the cargo for further investigation but declining to elaborate on the contents.
Anatolia news agency quoted officials as saying they suspected the aircraft was carrying arms. “There is illegal cargo on the plane that should have been reported” in line with civil aviation regulations, Davutoglu said, quoted by Anatolia. “There are elements on board that can be considered objectionable.”
Tensions have been running high between Ankara and Damascus since the eruption of the conflict in March 2011 and were inflamed after a series of shell strikes from Syria on Turkish soil, including one attack that killed five civilians last week.
Rebels are seeking to secure a buffer zone in northwestern Syria, and this week won control of the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan on the highway linking Damascus to the main battleground city of Aleppo. An AFP reporter in the town said the insurgents had completely cut off the highway on Thursday, choking the flow of regime troops to battlefields in the north.
Syrian troops had during the night attempted to retake Maaret al-Numan but had failed, rebel commander Akram Sale told AFP, adding that four rebels were killed in the fighting.
Firaz Abdel Hadi, a rebel media official, said that almost 300 people have been killed in three days in Maaret al-Numan, including 55 civilians, 46 rebel fighters and 190 Syrian army soldiers.
Other sources said that regime forces executed at least 65 prisoners before retreating from the city. A surviving prisoner said guards had opened fire on 80 prisoners before fleeing.
In the central province of Homs, the town of Qusayr and rebel districts in the city of Homs were shelled and bombed by warplanes, said the Britain-based Observatory.
The army has intensified operations against Homs and Qusayr, which have been besieged by troops for months, vowing to overrun them by the end of the week to free up forces for northern battle zones.
The Observatory said violence killed at least 69 people across Syria so far on Thursday - 32 soldiers, 19 civilians and 18 rebels - adding to its overall toll of more than 32,000 dead in the nearly 19-month conflict. A Saudi official said that peace envoy Brahimi would hold talks later on Thursday with the Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister, Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, the king’s son who is in charge of the Syrian issue.
The envoy, who has previously held out little prospect for a negotiated end to a conflict both sides seem determined to decide on the battlefield, would have “wide-ranging talks on the prolonged crisis in Syria,” said his spokesman.
Brahimi had first gone to the Middle East in mid-September, visiting Damascus, where he met Assad - but earned no promises of concessions from the Syrian strongman.