TURKEY/SYRIA: Clashes continue near border in Syria

Record ID: 281502

  • Title: TURKEY/SYRIA: Clashes continue near border in Syria
  • Date: 13th October 2012
  • Summary: AKCAKALE, TURKEY (OCTOBER 12, 2012) (REUTERS) VIEW OF SYRIAN BORDER VARIOUS OF ARMOURED CARRIER STATIONED AT BORDER VAROUS OF TURKISH AND SYRIAN OPPOSITION FLAGS AT BORDER VARIOUS OF ARTILLERY BATTALION POSITIONED AT BORDER VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS POSITIONED NEAR TRENCH MACHINE GUN MOUNTED ON AN APC WEAPONS VEHICLE SOLDIERS NEAR TRENCH AZMARIN, SYRIA (AS SEEN FROM TU
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey, Syrian Arab Republic
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey Syrian Arab Republic
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVAE4RIDJXW6L1ODTKJXS7YHCPLA
  • Story Text: Syrian government forces battled rebels on Friday (October 12) for control of the border area around their home town of Azmarin on the third day of intense fighting.
    Shells fired onto the town from surrounding hills sent thick plumes of smoke and dust rising into the air and sporadic cracks of gunfire could be heard from the Turkish side of the frontier.
    Intense fighting between rebels and Syrian government forces began this week in Azmarin and neighbouring towns in an area strongly opposed to President Bashar al-Assad's rule.
    The clashes have sparked an exodus from the area, with people fleeing across the Orontes river that forms a natural frontier along this section of the Turkish-Syrian border.
    Fighting along the 900-km (560-mile) border has repeatedly spilled over into Turkish territory over the past week, with the Turkish army responding in kind to gunfire and mortar shells flying over from Syria.
    Turkish Chief of Staff General Necdet Ozel said on Wednesday that his troops would respond "with greater force" if the shelling continued, and parliament last week authorised the deployment of troops outside Turkish territory, heightening fears that Syria's civil war will drag in regional powers.
    NATO-member Turkey was once an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but turned against him after his violent response to an uprising in which more than 30,000 people have died, according to the United Nations.
    A sharp rise in casualties in Syria in the past month indicates the growing intensity of the conflict, which spiralled from peaceful protests against Assad's rule in March 2011 into a full-scale civil war.
    Turkey has nearly 100,000 Syrian refugees in camps on its territory, has allowed rebel leaders sanctuary and has led calls for Assad to quit.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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