Turkey scrambles jets as Syria bombs border

CEYLANPINAR, Turkey: Turkey scrambled fighter jets to its southeastern border with Syria yesterday in response to a renewed Syrian air assault of the rebel-held frontier town of Ras Al-Ain, witnesses said.
A Reuters reporting crew on the border heard warplanes inside Turkish territory shortly after a Syrian jet bombed Ras Al-Ain, which abuts the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar.
Turkey has sent jets before to its 900 km border with Syria and has responded in kind to stray Syrian shelling, but there was no immediate official confirmation from Ankara that it had scrambled fighter planes yesterday.
A Syrian warplane roared along the frontier and struck twice before circling and bombing again, rocking buildings in Ceylanpinar and sending up huge plumes of smoke over Ras Al-Ain. There was no word on casualties.
A trickle of refugees clambered with the belongings through the flimsy barbed-wire fence between Ras Al-Ain and Ceylanpinar, which were only divided from each other when new borders were drawn after the Ottoman empire collapsed in World War One.
Syrian army tanks shelled a refugee camp and two nearby districts in southern Damascus yesterday as battles raged and warplanes bombarded a northwestern town, a watchdog said.
The tanks were deployed at the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk overnight, as well as the nearby districts of Tadamun and Assali, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Shells struck a second refugee camp east of Yarmuk yesterday, said the monitoring group, without specifying which side fired them.
Elsewhere, warplanes and tanks pounded the town of Al-Tah in the northwestern province of Idlib, said the Observatory.
France became the first European power to recognize Syria’s new opposition coalition as the sole representative of its people and said it would look into arming rebels against Assad once they form a government.
“I announce today that France recognizes the Syrian national coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people and as future government of a democratic Syria making it possible to bring an end to Bashar Assad’s regime,” French President Francois Hollande said, breaking ranks with European allies.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that the US will provide an additional $30 million in humanitarian aid to Syria, bringing the total US aid to the war-torn nation to $ 200 million.