IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Sources in the Turkish-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib on Saturday denied the Turkish claims of Egyptian soldiers fighting alongside Syrian regime and Iranian militias in Syria.
Last week, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Egypt sent nearly 150 soldiers to Syria to fight in the ranks of the Assad regime.
Ahmad Abu Mohammad, a Syrian activist based in Idlib who reports the conflict there, told North Press that there were no Egyptian troops in the region.
“Anadolu News agency has already published fake news two years ago about Egyptian pilots operating in the regime-held Hama military airbase,” he said.
Turkish claims against Egyptian troops came after the Egyptian parliament approved Egyptian troops deployment to Libya to fight against Libya's Turkish-backed, internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.
Egypt, alongside the United Arab Emirates and Russia, backs Libya's eastern-based military leader Khalifa Haftar against the Turkish-backed GNA.
Last month, the eastern-based Libyan parliament allied to Haftar asked Cairo to intervene militarily to counter Turkey.
Egyptian state TV later ran banners on the screen saying: “Egypt and Libya, one people, one fate.”
Egyptian officials often refer to armed groups in Tripoli and western Libya as “militias” and see Haftar as leading a “counter-terrorism force.”
(Editing by Hisham Arafat)