Syrian troops target villagers near Turkish border

Assad’s forces use scorched earth policy to round up hundreds they claim to be in armed gangs in area north of Jisr al-Shughour Syrian troops have moved closer to the Turkish border as they sweep through villages north of Jisr al-Shughour, rounding up hundreds of people they claim are linked to armed gangs. Turkey was on Monday assembling a fifth refugee camp in its southern border towns, but with the number of Syrians who have crossed the boundary topping 7,000, these camps may not be sufficient to deal with the fast-increasing number of people in need of help. “There are 7,000 people across the border, more and more women and children are coming towards the barbed wires,” said Abu Ali, one of those who left Jisr al-Shughour. “Jisr is finished, it is razed,” he told Associated Press. Several thousand more Syrians remain within sight of the Turkish border fence but appear to be trying to wait out the crisis in the hope that they can return to their properties in their home town. Many have brought with them livestock and worldly possessions that they would have to leave behind if they crossed the frontier. Residents who fled the army onslaught on Jisr al-Shughour said soldiers were pursuing a scorched-earth policy, pouring petrol on farmlands and setting them alight. All men who had stayed behind aged between 18-40 were being arrested, reports said. Strident international criticism over the Jisr al-Shughour operation, which appears to have been sparked by a large mutiny of soldiers on 5 June, has done nothing to quell the violence in the north. Damascus continues to claim it is fighting armed gangs backed by foreign powers who ambushed regime forces, killing 120 of them, then stayed behind to fight the advance by thousands of troops and up to 200 tanks and artillery pieces. The Turkish prime minister, Recap Tayyip Erdogan, has joined the condemnation of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, but has not moved to change the historically close ties between the countries. Analysts in Beirut said a turning point for Ankara may come if the uprising in northern Syria spreads to Kurds in the country’s north-west, who share a border with south-east Turkey, where Kurdish rebels have fought a protracted insurgency against the government. Assad has not accepted Erdogan’s calls over the past week, according to reports from the Turkish capital. Nor has he been prepared to deal with the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. However, Assad did find time to congratulate the Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman, and the prime minister-elect, Najib Miqati, for forming a cabinet after five months of wrangling within Lebanon’s feuding political groups. The mooted new government got off to a bad start, with several key players including a Druze leader and a Hezbollah official, suggesting Lebanon faces more troubled days alongside its dominant neighbour to the east. Britain says it is moving ahead with plans to seek a UN resolution condemning Syria, but is not confident about winning over Russia, a long term ally of Damascus, which has said it would veto any such move. Syria Bashar Al-Assad Turkey Arab and Middle East unrest Martin Chulov guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.