Security sources have said officers from the Syrian regime's army train militants from the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), a terrorist organization that has carried out attacks in Turkey. DHKP-C, which has close ties with the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his late father and previous president, Hafez Assad, have allegedly recruited militants from among supporters of the regime. Sources say DHKP-C recruits are being trained in two camps by officers of the Syrian army and their number is well above 100.
After they complete their training, recruits join the Shabiha, the Assad regime's ruthless militia known for its brutal crackdown on regime opponents. Recruits are commanded by Mihraç Ural, a Turkey-born militant who heads a splinter group of a movement that the DHKP-C fell out with. Ural was accused of orchestrating two bombings in Hatay, Turkey that killed dozens of people two years ago. Sources say the militants are dispatched to Turkey after "field training" with the Shabiha.
Turkey has tightened security measures at two of its border gates with Syria to hamper any possible emergence of a security issue created by the Assad government. According to earlier intelligence received by Ankara, Assad aims to reciprocate Turkey's vigorous efforts in the coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) by creating chaos in Turkey ahead of the June 7 general elections. Assad will reportedly release imprisoned criminals in exchange for their cooperation in conducting attacks in Turkey. Prisoners will be sent to Turkey posing as needy refugees.
According to reports in the Turkish media, the DHKP-C has a base in Syria's coastal city of Latakia and is supported by al-Mukhaberat, the formidable intelligence service of the Assad regime.
The DHKP-C, which claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing targeting the U.S. Embassy in Ankara two years ago and perpetrated the killing of a prosecutor in his Istanbul courthouse office, was founded in Syria in 1994 while Hafez Assad was in power.
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