ANKARA – Turkey is constructing 2.5-km-long (1.5 mile) twin walls at a border crossing with Syria to increase security at the frontier following three deadly bombings this year.
Officials work on one of the scenes of the twin car bomb terrorist attacks in the town of Reyhanli. – Photo: Reuters
The concrete walls will be built on either side of the road leading from the Turkish side of the crossing at Cilvegozu to the Syrian border gate and will be topped with barbed wire, the Turkish Customs Ministry said in a statement.
Cilvegozu was the scene of a bombing in February which killed 14 people and this month 51 people died when twin car bombs ripped through the nearby town of Reyhanli.
Since July, Turkish vehicles have not been allowed to cross at the Cilvegozu gate for security reasons, but it has remained open to allow in Syrian refugees and for humanitarian aid from Turkey to be carried across.
Approved Turkish vehicles are currently allowed into the unoccupied buffer area between the Turkish and Syrian gates to unload goods before turning back.
The Bab al-Hawa gate on the Syrian side fell under the control of rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad last year. February’s bomb struck inside the buffer area very close to the Turkish gate.
Vehicle screening equipment and x-ray machines as well as wire fencing and extra lighting and security cameras will also be installed, the ministry said.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will visit Reyhanli on Saturday, the first time since the bombings.
View original Jerusalem Post publication at: http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Turkey-builds-wall-at-Syria-border-crossing-314286
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