Suspicious of arms shipment, Turkish army stops truck bound for Syria

 Turkish gendarmes reportedly discovered weapons and ammunition after pursuing a truck bound for Syria in the southern province of Hatay on Wednesday.

Acting on a tip, gendarmes stopped a truck that allegedly belongs to the Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH) on a road between Kırıkhan and Reyhanlı near the Syrian border.

A significant amount of ammunition and weapons were discovered, according to local reports. However, the İHH strongly rejected any link to the seized truck in a written statement.

According to reports circulating in the Turkish media, Hatay Governor Celalettin Lekesiz unsuccessfully tried to take the truck back from the gendarmerie. The Hatay chief public prosecutor is investigating the incident.

The recent seizure of weapons came as Turkish security forces began to clamp down on all arms shipment across the borders to Syria after Turkey faced mounting international criticism for being soft on radical groups crossing its porous borders.

Firmly denying providing any support to groups linked to al-Qaeda, Ankara has now bolstered the military presence along the 911-kilometer-long (566-mile-long) border with Syria given the steady rise of radical groups among the Syrian opposition forces in northern Syria.