ALEPPO, Syria — Turkey has been training a police organization, the Free Syrian Police (FSP), to help out with secondary operations in Aleppo province so the Free Syrian Army (FSA) can focus on fighting and maintaining control of the areas it has captured.

“We are working on taking over all of the FSA military checkpoints at the city and town entrances, conducting regular patrols, promoting the role of the traffic police, managing the traffic and establishing an immediate-action rapid-deployment" team, FSP Lt. Col. Wael Fouad told Al-Monitor recently. His unit began operating this month in Azaz, in northern Aleppo near the Syria-Turkey border, after it completed 23 days of intensive training in Mersin, Turkey.

"Most of the courses were centered on policing, organized crimes, arrests, armed attacks and countering terrorism," Fouad said.

Fouad's 1,300-member unit is also covering the border town of al-Rai and other cities in the area such as Mare', Suran and Akhtarin. An additional FSP force of 450 members began operating in January in the Jarablus area of northeastern Aleppo province near the Turkish border.