Turkey has moved tanks to the border village of Mursitpinar, and placed missile defense units stationed nearby on alert, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
Turkey’s government says al-Qaeda militants of the Islamic State of
Iraq and the Levant have surrounded the area, and the Hurriyet newspaper has reported they gave a March 24 deadline to lower Turkish flags. The paper referred to al-Qaeda fighters captured last week in Turkey after they killed three people.
“All groups in Syria including the Syrian regime should know that any wrong attitude and move against Turkish territory will bring retaliation,” Turkish Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday. “Everything possible will be done to ensure the security of our soldiers. Right now, the situation seems stable, no action is foreseen.”
Turkey Vows Action to Defend Tomb in Syria From Al-Qaeda - Bloomberg
Their AA will need to be taken out before any operation is undertaken:
Missile lock-on systems deployed in Syria harassed five Turkish F-16 fighter jets on Tuesday, the second such incident since a Syrian warplane was shot down by F-16 pilots on Sunday after violating Turkey's airspace, according to a statement from Turkish Military headquarters on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported.
The incident occurred when the five Turkish Air Force jets were patrolling the Turkey-Syria border and four Syrian jets approached Turkey's airspace. The Syrian fighter jets left the area without violating Turkish airspace.
Meantime, Syrian ground missile lock-on systems tracked the Turkish jets twelve times for ten minutes as they flew over Turkey's southern Hatay province, added the statement.
Missile lock-on is the guidance system for a missile that can accurately track a target, and a fire-control system that can calculate the required flight path for the missile to intercept the target.
In Sunday's incident, a Syrian fighter jet was shot down near the northwestern Syrian town of Kasab as clashes along the Turkish-Syrian border intensified.
A statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Monday underlined that the Syrian regime did not adhere to the Turkey-Syria border commission meetings protocol, signed May 9, 1971, which bans aircrafts from either side getting any closer than five kilometers to their shared border.
Meanwhile, a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry urged Syria and Turkey to show restraint and not let the situation escalate.
Back in 2012 Syria shot down a Turkish warplane after it reportedly violated Syrian airspace and killed two pilots.
Turkey shot down a Syrian MI-17 attack helicopter last September, saying it made a 2-km incursion into its airspace.
