Turkey has been supporting Al-Qaeda’s attack on the Kasab border crossing, the only crossing that was still held by the Syrian military. While the AFP did report that the group involved in the attack was the Al-Qaeda faction Al-Nusra Front, this fact has not made it to any mainstream media headline.

Al-Nusra Front militants are actively being given safe haven by Turkey. The map below shows the Al-Qaeda Camp within the Turkish border from which the attack on the Kasab border crossing came. Al-Qaeda militants also brazenly videotaped themselves walking right through the Turkish Kasab border gate into Syria without any harassment from Turkish guards.

Another Al-Qaeda offshoot fighting alongside Al-Nusra Front in the offensive is Ahrar Al-Sham. While the rebel group is not yet designated Al Qaeda by the US State Department, the group was founded by Abu Khaled as-Suri, Al Zawahiri’s ambassador to Syria.  Ahrar Al-Sham was described as ‘Al-Qaeda worth befriending’ by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Washington’s premier think tank.  Charles Lister, a fellow at of the Brookings Institution, tweets video of Ahrar Al-Sham taking part in the attack on Latakia.

It was reported that Turkey had begun shelling inside Syrian soil to back the offensive on the border point. Turkish artillery and tanks targeted Syrian positions, and Turkish Special Forces have been observed in the region. A Lebanon based satellite channel Al Mayadeen TV reported that the Syrian Army launched a counterattack on the border point Nabie Al Murr with Turkey , along with dense artillery cover.

In response to the Syrian defensive measures against the Al-Qaeda attack, Turkey downed a Syrian jet that was firing on the Al-Qaeda militants from Syrian airspace. Turkey’s claims that the Syrian jet violated Turkish airspace is contradicted by the fact the plane crashed over Syrian territory as shown in a video posted by Al-Qaeda in the area. The pilot managed to safely eject and was picked up in Syria, and was even interviewed by Syrian state TV. The Al-Qaeda attack and takeover of the Kasab border crossing has caused up to 2000 to 6000 Armenian Syrians to flee the area. Mass looting and destruction of religious sites was reported by residents (similar to criminal acts carried out in the recently liberated city of Yabroud). Armenians are once again refugees due to the Turkish government like their ancestors who fled the Armenian Holocaust decades ago.

There has been no mention on the BBC of NATO’s open support for Al-Qaeda groups. The attack comes in the backdrop of mass rallies against Turkish President Erdogan, who recently banned Twitter.

The battles in Latakia are ongoing, with the Syrian military inflicting heavy losses on Al-Qaeda militants.

By Mimi Al Laham for globalresearch.ca