NOVANEWS
ed note–remember, Turkey is NATO, and by the terms of the treaty, if a NATO member is attacked, ALL members are obliged to assist militarily. By inducing Syria to fire across Turkeyt’s border, (either by screwing around with Syria’s GPS systems or by having western-backed terrorists fire at Syrian forces from within Turkey, thus resultingin Syria fighting back) the powers that be are setting up a scenraio whereby NATO will be forced to act militarily, exactly as Israel wants/demands.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish officials said on Monday that Syrian government forces had opened fire across the border late Sunday, killing two people and wounding three others close to one of the largest Syrian refugee camps in Turkey.
The firing raised troubling questions about the possibility of a broader conflagration in the tinderbox border region. And it deepened the gloom surrounding prospects for a cease-fire under a peace proposal by Kofi Annan, the special envoy to Syria for both the Arab League and the United Nations. The proposal called for government forces to pull back from major cities by Tuesday, 48 hours before the truce was to begin.
On Sunday, however, Syria demanded written guarantees from rebel forces that they would lay down their arms before the government forces withdrew. The insurgents in the Free Syrian Army responded by saying that President Bashar al-Assad would not carry out the Annan plan and predicted that it would fail.
Opposition activists said Sunday that dozens of people were killed and wounded when government troops shelled a rebel redoubt near the Turkish border. An estimated 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Mr. Assad began more than a year ago.
Turkish officials said it was unclear what kind of weapons caused the injuries on Sunday in the attack, which occurred about six miles beyond the border, near the town of Killis, Turkey. The Turkish Foreign Ministry had asked a Syrian diplomat in Ankara to provide information, the officials said, and there were conflicting accounts about the episode.
A member of the Free Syrian Army said three Syrians were shot by government snipers as they were about to cross into Turkey. They were fleeing clashes in a settlement on the Syrian side of the border, Turkey’s semiofficial Anatolian News Agency reported.
Hundreds of Syrians have crossed into Turkey in recent weeks, bringing the total number of refugees there to more than 24,300, according to the prime minister’s office in Ankara. Turkey has built several camps in its southern provinces along the 550-mile border with Syria. Just last week, more than 2,800 Syrians entered Turkey within the space of two days, and a further 700 arrived on Saturday, according to Turkish accounts.
Mr. Annan was expected to arrive in Turkey’s Hatay Province on Tuesday to visit some of the camps, news reports said.
As the deadline for the cease-fire approached, China urged both sides on Monday to abide by Mr. Annan’s proposals, Reuters reported. China, along with Russia, has blocked Western and Arab demands at the United Nations for a tougher stance to force Mr. Assad from office as part of a transition to democratic rule.
“China urges the Syrian government and opposition groups to seize the current critical moment to abide by cease-fire and troop withdrawal promises, cooperate with special envoy Annan’s mediation efforts to alleviate the current tense situation and facilitate humanitarian assistance, and promote a political solution to the conflict in Syria,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, was quoted as telling a news briefing.
The developments occurred as Human Rights Watch said that Syrian security forces had executed more than 100 people, and possibly many more, including civilians and wounded or captured opposition fighters, during recent attacks.
A report by the group documented what it called more than a dozen episodes in which at least 101 people had been killed since the end of last year, many of them in March. The report accused government and pro-government forces of executing civilians who posed no threat, as well as rebels who had been captured or had stopped fighting.
Ole Solvang, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “In a desperate attempt to crush the uprising, Syrian forces have executed people in cold blood, civilians and opposition fighters alike. They are doing it in broad daylight and in front of witnesses, evidently not concerned about any accountability for their crimes.”
There was no immediate response to the report from the Syrian government.
