The Turkish armed forces attacked a convoy of the Islamic State of Iraq and as-Sham in northern Syria on Tuesday.
A statement from the Turkish military said the convoy was hit after ISIS militants opened fire on a military outpost on the Turkey-Syria border. “Warplanes” — which EA sources indicate means drones —- tanks, and artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border destroyed a bus and several other vehicles near Al Ra’i, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) east of Azaz and west of Manbij.
A freelance journalist offers a slightly different version:
@martinchulov No air planes were used, just tanks and armed buses used and it happened yesterday evening in Çobanbey in East of Kilis
— Freelance Journalist (@Fixer_Turkey) January 29, 2014
The journalist also supports other sources that the ISIS convoy, which suffered about a dozen casualties, was en route to attack Turkoman fighters allied with the Free Syrian Army:
In north of Aleppo clashing r going on between ISIS and Turkoman Turks,ISIS convoy that Turkey attacked was going to fight against Turkomans
— Freelance Journalist (@Fixer_Turkey) January 29, 2014
“Abu Layth”, who claims to be an ISIS fighter, wrote of the Turkish strike on Twitter. He said one ISIS Emir, Abu Ja’fr Dagestani, had been killed in the incident.
Allahu akbar the turkish army has dipped its hands in the war in Shaam! Yesterday whilst we were whacking some FSA in al ra'i next to the
— Abu Layth (@khorasani_) January 29, 2014
Borders they sent a small kind of remote controlled plane over our heads, minutes later we were bombarded with explosives from Allah knows
— Abu Layth (@khorasani_) January 29, 2014
What kind of weaponry. The explosions were bigger than jet fighters, similiar to that from the huge barrel bombs helicopters occasionally
— Abu Layth (@khorasani_) January 29, 2014
Want to get across is no bullet from a soldier in The Islamic State will be aimed at the Turks. Before the media tries to start something
— Abu Layth (@khorasani_) January 29, 2014
That we attacked them. Let it be known here first that I say this and may Allah paralyse my tongue if I'm lying, we say their plane over us
— Abu Layth (@khorasani_) January 29, 2014
We saw the bombs come from their side, the bullets over our heads and they caused us to pull back from what would have been an easy victory
— Abu Layth (@khorasani_) January 29, 2014
@Korkutbhdr yeah, we were near the border a town called al ra'i.
— Abu Layth (@khorasani_) January 29, 2014
