ANKARA, TURKEY —
Turkish troops returned fire after coming under attack along the Syrian border overnight as more than 1,000 suspected smugglers, including 150 on horseback, tried to cross into Turkey from Syria, the military said.
The incident on Turkey's long Syria frontier, where tensions have been on the rise over the past couple of months, follows a string of similar confrontations between Turkish soldiers and hundreds of people described by the military as smugglers.
Syrian refugees fleeing from the civil war in their homeland often cross over the frontier in large numbers and Turkish officials have conceded smugglers sometimes intermingle with the refugees to use them as cover.
The military said it spotted 750-1,000 people on foot, a separate group of 150 people on horseback, and some 40 vehicles forming a line around 300 meters along the border near the Turkish village of Kusakli in Hatay's Reyhanli district.
The troops deployed armored vehicles and a tank along the frontier to block the group from crossing, and they issued warnings in Turkish and Arabic to try to keep them back, the military said.
The security forces then intervened, the military said, without elaborating. Some 15-20 rounds were fired with a pump-action rifle from Kusakli, prompting the soldiers to return fire.
The military did not specify whether smugglers or villagers opened fire. Following the army's warning shots, the smugglers left the area. Some 35 containers of petrol were found.
The incident on Turkey's long Syria frontier, where tensions have been on the rise over the past couple of months, follows a string of similar confrontations between Turkish soldiers and hundreds of people described by the military as smugglers.
Syrian refugees fleeing from the civil war in their homeland often cross over the frontier in large numbers and Turkish officials have conceded smugglers sometimes intermingle with the refugees to use them as cover.
The military said it spotted 750-1,000 people on foot, a separate group of 150 people on horseback, and some 40 vehicles forming a line around 300 meters along the border near the Turkish village of Kusakli in Hatay's Reyhanli district.
The troops deployed armored vehicles and a tank along the frontier to block the group from crossing, and they issued warnings in Turkish and Arabic to try to keep them back, the military said.
The security forces then intervened, the military said, without elaborating. Some 15-20 rounds were fired with a pump-action rifle from Kusakli, prompting the soldiers to return fire.
The military did not specify whether smugglers or villagers opened fire. Following the army's warning shots, the smugglers left the area. Some 35 containers of petrol were found.
