Passengers detained briefly over suspected military cargo
–
Relations between
Syria and Turkey got even more volatile today when Turkish fighter jets forced a Syrian passenger plane to land in Ankara, reports the
BBC.
Turkish officials detained the plane and passengers briefly and
confiscated suspected military cargo. They wouldn't specify what came
off the plane, which was flying in from Moscow. "We are determined to
control weapons transfers to a regime that carries out such brutal
massacres against civilians," said Turkey's foreign minister. "It is
unacceptable that such a transfer is made using our airspace."
The move comes a week after
Turkey shelled Syrian
positions, in retaliation for Syrian mortars killing Turkish civilians
in a border town. Today, a Turkish general warned that the army's
response would be "even stronger" if the Syrian shelling continues near
the border, reports the
New York Times.
A stream of Syrian civilians—"many of them women with screaming
children clinging to their necks"—is crossing a narrow river into Turkey
as the fighting between the army and rebels intensifies, reports
Reuters.
