Turkey sends experts on chemical weapons to Syria borderAnkara Anatolia news agency (25.07.12) reports that all Turkey’s border gates with Syria are to be closed from Wednesday, an official from the Turkish Customs and Trade Ministry told Reuters, in response to worsening security conditions.

Syrian rebels seized control of several gates on the Syrian side of the frontier over the last week in their 16-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

The closure will halt the passage of vehicles between Turkey and Syria. Thousands of refugees from Syria, who have been fleeing into Turkey to escape the conflict, cross the border through smuggling routes.

Tensions along the border were fuelled by the shooting down, last month, of a Turkish military reconnaissance jet by Syrian air defences.

Wednesday’s move will close the only three border gates that were still open, at Cilvegozu, Oncupinar and Karkamis, the unnamed official said.

Crossing the border had become increasingly hazardous for truck drivers involved in trade between the two countries. They faced the constant risk of being targeted by combatants or caught in the crossfire between the two sides.

In addition, Dogan News Agency (25.07.12) reports that Turkey’s military has sent teams specially trained in dealing with chemical weapons attacks to the Syrian border region after Syria warned that it could used such weapons against forces from outside the country, Turkish media reports said on Tuesday.

Dogan News Agency said the chemical weapons battalion, previously based in western Turkey, had been transferred to Konya in central Turkey two months ago and one group of the personnel had now gone to the Syrian border area.

The agency did not specify a source for the report and officials were not immediately available to comment on it. Other news outlets were also carrying the report.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi acknowledged on Monday that the country had chemical weapons, saying it would not use them to crush rebels but could use them against forces from outside the country.