Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has captured suspected Russian agents assigned to help the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Officials said the Turkish military arrested two Russians who crossed from Syria to Turkey.

The officials said the Russians, who were not identified, appeared to be coordinating shipments of equipment to Syria.

“The two men surrendered to the [security forces],” the Turkish military said on Jan. 21.

“They are of Russian nationality, possessed one Glock gun, seven different mobile phones, three micro-memory cards, and one flash disk.”

The military said the two Russians have been detained at a facility of Turkey’s paramilitary Gendarmerie. The Russians were said to have crossed from Syria into the southern Turkish province of Hatay.

The arrest came as Turkey intensified security along the 900-kilometer
border with Turkey. The military also reported the discovery of a
500-meter-long pipeline that smuggled oil from Syria to Hatay.

“The pipeline was destroyed at the order of the Altinozu Prosecutor’s
Office,” the military said.

The military also shut down two border facilities amid heavy fighting in
northern Syria. On Jan. 20 two cars exploded in an attack on a nearby Syrian
rebel border post in the Idlib province, in which 15 people were killed.

Turkey’s intelligence agency has also been engaged in arms smuggling to
Syria. Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the National Intelligence
Organization, known by its Turkish acronym, MIT, was running weapons toward
the Syrian border. On Jan. 19, the Gendarmerie stopped seven
trucks that carried weapons and ammunition.

“They say these trucks belong to the MIT and that no search can be
conducted,” Kilicdaroglu said. “As far as I know, MIT has no such task as
smuggling weapons. The Turkish republic has become engulfed inside an
illegal activity.”

  Bashar Assad, Gendarmerie, Hatay, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Turkey captures Russian agents crossing border from Syria