Military experts say Turkish occupation implicated in targeting Russian servicemen near Ariha city

Military experts have stated that signs indicate the implication of the Turkish occupation’s intelligence in an attack that yesterday targeted Russian soldiers within a joint Russian-Turkish patrol near the bridge of Ariha city on the “M4” highway- the section that connects Aleppo to Lattakia.

The attack has resulted in injuring 3 Russian soldiers and damaging their vehicles.

The experts told Syrian “Al-Watan Online” newspaper that by launching this attack, the Turkish regime aims at halting the conduct of joint patrols with Russia in order to delay the opening of the international road between Aleppo and Lattakia to traffic, contrary to the provisions of the “Moscow” agreement which is an additional protocol to the “Sochi” agreement between Russia and Turkey regarding the de-escalation zone in Idlib.

 The experts made it clear that the Turkish regime strongly backs Jabhat al-Nusra and its affiliated terrorist groups in Idlib and supports these terrorists’ attempts to hinder the implementation of the “Moscow”, the “Sochi” and the “Astana” agreements despite the fact that Turkey is a main guarantor in all these agreements.

 The experts also said that the Turkish regime seeks undermining all the understandings and agreements that provided for the expulsion of terrorists from Idlib and its surrounding countryside so that these areas return to the sovereignty of the Syrian state.

Ankara wants to put more economic pressure on Damascus by depriving it from benefiting from the M4 highway, a key economic lifeline that connects the northeastern part of the country to its western part and that constitutes an outlet to Aleppo, Syria’s economic capital city, towards the Syrian coast, according to the experts.

Turkey also wants to perpetuate its presence in Idleb regardless of its agreements with Russia and Iran, the experts pointed out.

Local sources in Ariha affirmed to Al-Watan Online that the incident of targeting military police vehicles within the joint patrol clearly indicates that this incident was well prepared and implemented by the Turkish occupation army deployed in the area through the illegal Turkish observation points there.

The sources pointed out that the Turkish occupation army, which usually monitors the road starting from the town of Al-Trenbeh in the eastern countryside of Idlib to “Tal Al-Hour” in the northeastern countryside of Lattakia, didn’t inspect the road where the explosive device, that had been planted beside the road near the Ariha Bridge, exploded when the joint patrol, especially the Russian vehicles, passed.

The Turkish reconnaissance planes, which monitor the road, also didn’t perform their duties properly, the sources added.

Hamda Mustafa