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Syrian border wall reduces illegal crossings: Turkish army

Xinhua, March 3, 2017 Adjust font size:

As Turkey has completed more than half of a planned wall along its 911-km border with Syria, the number of illegal crossings and smuggling attempts has decreased, a Turkish officer said on Thursday.

The constructed 3.6-meter-high concrete wall along Hatay, Kilis and Gaziantep provinces with Syrian border reduced the number of attempts for smuggling and illegal crossings, Colonel Alparslan Kilinc told reporters on a press trip to the Turkish army military post in the region.

A total of 2,044 detected smuggling attempts in 2015 decreased to 77 in 2016 along the 169-km border line under the 1st Border Regiment Command, Kilinc told reporters in Kilis.

The number of detected illegal crossings declined from a total of 12,183 attempts in 2015 when clashes were intense on the Syrian side of the border, to 8,531 in 2016, he stated.

In 2016, 210 third country nationals, mostly from Islamic State (IS) group and 49 Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) members were captured as they attempted illegal crossing in the regiment area, Kilinc said.

As part of the border security work along the Syrian border, the Turkish government builds modular walls next to a mined area followed by ditches and reinforced cage wire barriers. The military conducts routine patrols along the border line which is controlled by cameras day and night.

There are first- and second-degree military forbidden zones behind the barriers where farmers are allowed with permission.

Turkish Armed Forces units are also erecting the modular walls along the Turkish-Syrian borderline in southern Suruc, Sanliurfa and Karkamis.

Defense Minister Fikri Isik said in November that the construction of a concrete wall along the Turkish-Syrian border will be completed in the first half of 2017.

Turkey hopes the wall will help enhance border security against the Democratic Union Party (PYD) -- which Ankara sees as offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), and the IS members. Endi