On July 31, Arabi 21 shared a voice recording claiming to be of Egyptian troops recently deployed around the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib.
The news outlet said the recording was provided to it by Maj. Youssef al-Hamoud, a spokesman for the Turkish-backed Syria National Army (SNA). The spokesman claimed that the SNA intercepted calls between Egyptian troops in western Aleppo.
The 33-second voice recording is supposedly a call between two Egyptian service members in Syria. However, nothing in the recording indicates that those speaking in Egyptian dialect are soldiers or that they are indeed in Syria.
The Turkish Anadolu Agency reported on July 30 that Egypt deployed troops around Greater Idlib to support the Syrian Arab Army.
According to the SNA, 148 Egyptian service members were deployed in southern Idlib and western Aleppo. The service members were supposedly flown from Cairo and Ismailia to Hama Air Base in central Syria on July 26 and 27.
Pro-government sources and the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights denied any Egyptian deployment in Syria. However, Cairo is yet to comment on these claims.
A source in the Syrian opposition told Arabi 21 that Egypt may have deployed troops in Syria as a political message to Turkey. Last year, Ankara defied Egypt by intervening in Libya.
