Syrian Rebel Leader Says Regime behind Turkish Border Bombing

London/Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—Head of the Syrian National Council, George Sabra, accused the Syrian government of trying to assassinate him and his colleagues at a Syrian-Turkish border crossing yesterday.

The Syrian National Council chief, George Sabra, visited northern Syria with a delegation from the organization on Monday. A car bomb exploded at the Cilvegözü-Bab al-Hawa crossing 30 minutes after the party crossed into Syria, concealed in a minibus with Syrian license plates. Over a dozen people, including several Turkish civilians, were killed.

In a telephone interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Sabra said that his visit to “the liberated areas in northern Syria achieved its objectives in spite of the targeting of the delegation on the last day of the visit by exploding a car bomb on the Turkish border in Bab al-Hawa in the province of Hatay.”

Although he acknowledged that the results of the investigation into the bombing were not yet available, he accused the Bashar al-Assad regime of responsibility. Sabra said that this kind of bombing is not new to the Syrian regime and that “this has been the method of the regime since its first day in power. The Lebanese, as well as the Palestinians and Iraqis, have known this style” adding “it is not strange that the Assad regime should go back to it.”

Sabra went on to link the car bombing “to the semi-direct threat against Turkey” issued by Syrian Information Minister Imran al-Zubi, in a reference to Al-Zubi’s interview with Syrian TV on February 9, in which he said that the Syrian-Turkish borders have become “illusionary.”

As for the details of the incident, Muhammad Sarmini, director of the Gaziantep office of the Syrian National Council, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the 13-member delegation started field visits to the Syrian north four days ago in the area of I’zaz. On the following day, the delegation headed for the northern rural area of Aleppo. The third day was supposed to be for field tours in the Idlib countryside through the Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border. Sarmini said: “The bad weather and stopping at a rest house to get gasoline delayed us by around half an hour. In the meantime, we received a call from the crossing, informing us that a car bearing a Syrian license plate exploded at the same time that we were supposed to go through . . . based on that, it is clear that the Syrian National Council leadership was the target of the bombing.”

Sarmini added that the schedule of the visit was not a secret, and was drawn up in cooperation with the command of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). He claimed that the bombing did not dissuade the members of the SNC from entering Syria, saying: “Those who are being shelled inside Syria on a daily basis are not worth less than us, and we are not above those who are being targeted by tanks and missiles.”

In a related context, Abdul Basit Sida, former Syrian National Council head, told Asharq Al-Awsat that this visit was aimed at building support and contacts with leaders inside Syria. He stressed the importance of this step after Syrian National Coalition head, Moaz Alkhatib, took the decision to hold dialogue with the regime, which clashes with the charter on which this coalition was established.