Ban warns of Syria-Turkey escalation

DAMASCUS: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned yesterday of a “dangerous’ fallout from spiraling violence along the Syrian-Turkish border, as Assad’s troops shelled fighter bastions across Syria leaving dozens dead.
“The escalation of the conflict along the Syrian-Turkish border and the impact of the crisis on Lebanon are extremely dangerous,” Ban said at the opening of the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, France.
The armed uprising in Syria has increasingly sparked violence on the country’s border with NATO member Turkey, with the Turkish military returning fire on Sunday after a shell launched from Syria struck the border village of Akcakale.
There were no casualties in Sunday’s incident, but last Wednesday five civilians were killed in the village by shelling from Syria.
Since Wednesday, the Turkish military has responded in kind whenever Syrian ordnance has breached its territory, inflaming tensions between the former allies and leading to fears of a broader conflict.
Turkey’s Parliament on Thursday gave the government the green light to use military force against Syria if necessary.
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned cross-border attacks by Syria and called for restraint between the two neighbors whose ties have nosedived, with Ankara supporting the fighters.
Shelling from Syria into Lebanon and cross-border shootings, meanwhile, have become regular occurrences, while residents of Lebanon’s frontier region accuse Syria’s army of carrying out frequent incursions and kidnapping refugees.
The UN chief also raised concerns about arms supplies to both Assad’s regime and fighter forces.
“I am deeply concerned by the continued flow of arms to both the Syrian government and opposition forces. I urge again those countries providing arms to stop doing so,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Obseervatory said yesterday that among 20 people killed in Karak Al-Sharqi were at least five fighters.
“Karak Al-Sharqi has suffered repeated military assaults, heavy shelling and attempts to storm it over the past three days,” said the Observatory, which collates its information from a network of activists and medics on the ground.
It added that the town was facing “a crippling blockade and terrible medical and humanitarian conditions.”
Yesterday’s pre-dawn barrages came hours after a bomb exploded late on Sunday in a vehicle in the car park of the police headquarters in central Damascus, killing a policeman and damaging the building.
Witnesses told AFP the blast was followed by heavy gunfire, while the Observatory said “one or two people” were killed in the latest in a string of bombings of high-level security targets in Damascus.
The northern city of Aleppo, which since mid-July has been the focal point of the revolt against Assad’s regime, was rattled from early morning by shelling which hit a string of fighter-held neighborhoods as well as by firefights between fighters and troops, the watchdog said.
According to the Observatory, at least 120 people — 54 civilians, 27 fighters and 39 government troops — were killed nationwide on Sunday.
On July 18, fighters carried out a massive bombing in Damascus, killing Assad’s brother-in-law, the defense minister and a general.