Israel Matzav

Turkey sends ground-to-air missiles to Syrian border

This sure ought to contribute to peace. Turkey has sent ground-to-air missiles to its border with Syria.

A train convoy carrying several batteries of missiles arrived in Mardin in southeastern Turkey and will be transferred to several army units deployed on the border, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Television footage showed at least five vehicles in the convoy were carrying air defense missiles, in the latest show of force by Syria's one-time ally which is now a fervent critic of President Bashar Assad's regime.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned last month after the downing of a military jet initially blamed on Damascus that it now regarded Syria as a "clear and imminent threat".

Syria has in turn accused Turkey of sheltering rebels and training and supplying militants fighting the regime in a conflict that erupted in March 2011 and has now claimed at least 19,000 lives according to activists.

I'm not going to defend Assad, but does anyone really believe that he's going to invade another country right now? And if he chooses to invade a neighbor, does anyone really believe that neighbor would be Turkey? It sounds to me like this is more about Turkey's wounded pride over that jet being shot down than anything else.

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Syrian uprising, Turkey

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:30 AM