Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Sunni rebels claimed a victory over the Syrian Army in
fighting near the border with Turkey.

The Free Syrian Army said its forces seized an Army outpost in the
northern province of Idlib on March 26. FSA said the rebels captured 17
Assad loyalists as well as a large quantity of weapons.

“We also captured 10,000 Russian bullets, 5,000 machine-gun rounds, an RPG launcher, 20 Russian assault rifles, two PKC machine guns, 20 explosives, five mines, three night-vision goggles, binocular, and 18 bullet-proof vests,” FSA spokesman Lt. Col. Khalid Yusef Al Hamoud said.

The FSA claim differed from that of the Assad regime. Damascus said Assad troops halted a rebel operation from Turkey into Syria and captured rocket-propelled grenades and communications.

“Authorities on March 26 foiled an infiltration attempt by an armed terrorist group from Turkish territory into Syria between the village of Darkoush village, near Ghazaleh, and Salqin in Idlib,” the official Syrian news agency said. “A number of terrorists [were] killed or wounded while others escaped to Turkey.”

The FSA report came amid repeated appeals by Syrian rebels for weapons
and munitions. The rebel force, based in Turkey, has
warned that its fighters were running out of supplies as Assad forces
capture such cities as Aleppo and Homs.

Rebel sources said FSA has begun operations in northern Syria from
strongholds in Turkey. But Al Hamoud said the planning of the capture of the
Syrian Army outpost was done inside Syria.

“We entered Syrian territory to carry out logistical support for our
fighters there, and then planned and carried out this operation to destroy
the military outpost,” Al Hamoud told the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat on
March 27.

  Aleppo, Bashar Assad, Free Syrian Army, Homs, Idlib, Rebels, Sryians issue competing claims on fighting at Turkish border outpost, Sunni rebels based in Turkey