Turkey terrorists syria
© Nazeer al-Khatib/AFP/Getty ImagesTurkish-backed Syrian rebels enter the village of Qastal Koshk, north of Afrin, on March 15, 2019, following battles between Turkish-backed forces and Kurdish fighters.
Sources in northern Syria revealed that Turkey has freed a number of former ISIS members from its prisons, sending them to northern Raqqa to form a new terrorist group. Three days ago, a new terrorist group which included former ISIS members, supported by the militants, held a meeting in Tal Abyadh region, the Arabic-language al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported.

It quoted Khalaf al-Khater, one of the media activists in Tal Abyadh, as saying that the meeting was aimed at forming a new group under Turkey's supervision. Also, Zaid al-Akidi, another Syrian activist, said that the group seems to be playing an important role under Ankara's supervision in the next few days, adding that they will possibly conduct operations against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

In a relevant development last week, dissident sources in Syria have also revealed Turkey's attempts to revive terrorist groups in Idlib, which would then resume their operations, specifically the infamous Tahrir al-Sham (the Levant Liberation Board or the Al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group).

A commander of al-Jibhat al-Wataniyeh Letahrir terrorist group, affiliated to Turkey, was quoted by the Arabic-language dissident Enab al-Baladi website as saying that Turkey has withdrawn a number of terrorists from its controlled areas in Syria and deployed them at its military points.

He added that Ankara aims to form a new terrorist army in the region after dissolving different grouplets, noting that the measure is useful to Turkey as it allegedly decreases attacks against the country due to the rebellious behavior of the terrorist groups. The more likely reason is that it gives Turkey a pretext to occupy parts of Syria's territory.

In the meantime, another source told the website that Turkey has two plans to reorganize the terrorist groups; first, training and deploying every 300 terrorists at one of its military points; and second, merging Tahrir al-Sham with other terrorist groups into a new "democratic opposition" group.