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.