US, Turkey to 'stem flow' of ISIL militants on Turkish-Syrian border

Iran Press TV

Thu Jul 23, 2015 9:24AM

Washington and Ankara have agreed to work jointly in a declared attempt to tighten security along Turkey's border with Syria, aimed at controlling the movement of ISIL militants in the region.

The White House said in a statement that US President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan had reached the agreement on Wednesday.

The statement said that the two sides plan to cooperate to "stem the flow" of foreign-backed militants and to secure Turkey's border with neighboring Syria.

Reports indicate that thousands of militants have joined ISIL – which has been carrying out deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq – by crossing unimpeded through Turkey.

The latest development comes just days after a bomb attack targeted Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF) members, who had gathered in Sanliurfa Province's town of Suruç, in order to help in the restructuring of the Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani damaged by ISIL militants, located across the border.

Complicity & duplicity

Turkey, along with some other regional countries, has been widely accused of supporting the Takfiri militants in Syria as part of a broader Western plot for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since March 2011. Reports say Ankara actively trained and armed the militants in Syria and facilitated the safe passage of the terrorists into the country.

Last month, Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman said Ankara has been allowing ISIL terrorists to freely walk in the streets of the Akcakale border district in Sanliurfa.

After the Suruç attack, Ankara condemned the Takfiri ISIL group as a "terrorist organization," vowing to fight against the terrorists.

ISIL militants currently control large areas of Syria and Iraq and have killed hundreds of thousands of people in both countries over the past few years.