THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Syrian troops massed on the Turkish border overnight, witnesses said on Thursday, escalating tensions with Ankara as President Bashar al-Assad uses increasing military force against a popular revolt.
Hundreds of terrified refugees crossed into Turkey on Thursday to escape an army assault on the border regions, witnesses said.
Protests have grown in northern areas bordering Turkey, following military assaults on towns and villages in the Jisr al-Shughour region of Idlib province to the west of Aleppo that had sent more than 10,000 fleeing to Turkey.
Troops were advancing on a main road leading from Aleppo, the commercial hub, to Turkey, residents said.
On the 100th day of an uprising that has posed the gravest challenge to Assad's rule, soldiers and secret police backed by armoured vehicles set up road blocks on Wednesday along the main road, a major route for container traffic from Europe to the Middle East. They arrested tens of people in the Heitan area north of Aleppo, residents said.
"The regime is trying to pre-empt unrest in Aleppo by cutting off logistics with Turkey. A lot of people here use Turkish mobile phone networks to escape Syrian spying on their calls and have family links with Turkey. There are also many old smuggling routes that people could use to flee," one of the residents, a physician, told Reuters by telephone. » | Thursday, June 23, 2011
