The continued exchange of artillery fire between Syria and Turkey raises additional concerns that the conflict may escalate and spread to neighboring countries, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on Saturday.
Panetta said the US was using its diplomatic channels to relay worries about the fighting in the hopes that it will not broaden.
His comments came on the heels of warnings from Turkey’s prime minister that his country is not far from war with Syria.
Photo: Reuters
Turkey and Syria traded artillery fire on Saturday as rebels clashed with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces near the border, heightening fears that the crisis could erupt into a regional conflict.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday cautioned Damascus not to test Turkey’s “limits and determination” and said Ankara was not bluffing in saying it would not tolerate such acts.
Tension along the Syrian-Turkey frontier erupted into violence after a Syrian shell smashed into a Turkish town on Wednesday last week, killing five civilians.
Rebels cemented their control of Syria’s northern frontier with Turkey after fierce clashes with the Syrian army, as their bastions in other parts of the country came under heavy shelling yesterday.
As the fighting raged, Syrian state television said that government forces had pushed rebels out of two of their strongholds in Damascus Province, Qudsaya and Hameh, where a watchdog said the bodies of 10 men were found.
Rebels seized the town of Khirbat al-Joz in the northwest province of Idlib after a pitched battle with regime troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“The clashes at Khirbat al-Joz ... ended when fighters of the rebel brigades took control of the area,” the UK-based watchdog said. “The fighting lasted more than 12 hours and resulted in at least 40 dead among the regular forces, including five officers, and nine [rebel] fighters.”
Nearly 80 percent of towns and villages along the Turkish border are outside the control of Damascus, according to the Observatory.
The Observatory also reported that regime forces yesterday pounded the town of Tal-Abyad in the northern province of Raqa, which sits on the border with Turkey and is held by the rebels.
Turkey had on Friday shelled a Syrian military position south of Tal-Abyad, as part of bombardments of Syrian military positions since the Turkish civilian deaths.
The Turkish parliament authorized further military action, but Erdogan said he was not seeking a mandate for war.
Officials said a mortar round struck inside Turkey again on Saturday, prompting fresh retaliatory fire by Turkish troops, but no casualties were reported.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said al-Assad should be replaced by Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara, whom he said “is a man of reason.”
The Turkish minister stressed that the Syrian opposition “is inclined to accept Shara” as the future leader of the Syrian administration.
Shara, the most visible Sunni Muslim figure in the minority Alawite-led government, is trusted by the regime and was foreign minister for 15 years before becoming vice president in 2006.
Reports that he had defected in August were denied by Damascus, but some opposition leaders say he is apparently under house arrest.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS