Turkish Planes Transported 500 ISIL Militants To Yemen: Syrian General

Saudi led coalition is suspected to have transported over 500 Islamic State (ISIL) militants from Syria to Yemen aboard Turkish planes to escape getting killed in Russian airstrikes.

Syrian Armed Forces spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Ali Maihub claimed that more than 500 ISIL militants had been transported from Syria to Yemen aboard 4 planes that had arrived from Turkey on October 26, Ria Novosti reported Tuesday.

According to him, two of the planes belong to Turkish airlines, one is a Qatari aircraft and one is a UEA plane.

"According to the intelligence data, 4 planes arrived from Turkey at the airport of Aden [in Yemen] on October 26. Two of them [planes] belonged to Turkish airlines, one — to Qatar airlines and another aircraft was owned by an UAE airline. More than 500 militants of ISIL terrorist group were on board, they were transported from Syria to save them from Russian airstrikes," Maihub said, according to RIA Novosti.

He further claimed Saudi-led coalition officers met ISIL militants at the airport in Yemen. The Syrian general said that the jihadists were supposed to take part in a ground operation against Houthi rebels.

"[ISIL] militants were met by officers from the Saudi-led coalition, who took them out of the [Yemeni] airport in three groups. The first group was taken to the town of al-Bab in the Mandeb province, the second — to Maariv, the third — to Saudi provinces Jazan and Asir," he said.

"The militants are expected to take part in the ongoing ground operation where ground coalition forces have recently suffered serious losses in clashes with Houthi fighters," the general said, adding that, based on intelligence data, similar transfers of ISIL militants from Syria would continue.

"According to available information, operations aimed to transport ISIL terrorists from Syria will continue in a short time," he added.