Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the media in Ankara April 5, 2012.

turkish-PM660

ANKARA: Shots fired from Syria at a Syrian refugee camp inside Turkey are a “clear violation” of the common border between the two countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday.

“It was a very clear violation of the border,” Erdogan told reporters in Beijing, where he is on an official visit. “Obviously we will take the necessary measures,” he was quoted as saying by the Turkish news agency Anatolia.

On the Turkish border Monday, shots fired from inside Syria wounded four Syrians and two Turkish staff working at a refugee camp in the first case of Syrian fire hitting people on Turkish soil.

Erdogan said his country will “use its rights as granted by international law,” but did not specify whether Turkey was planning to establish buffer zones or open up humanitarian corridors into Syria, as floated by Turkish media.

The incident angered Ankara on the eve of a visit by international envoy Kofi Annan to the refugee camps along the border, while Washington said it condemned attacks on Syrian refugees in bordering countries.

Annan is expected at the Turkish-Syrian border Tuesday noon, as well as prominent US senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman.

A Lebanese television cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed inside Lebanese territory, also by Syrian gunfire.

Syria was facing a deadline Tuesday to withdraw its forces from urban areas after months of bloody clashes, with a peace accord brokered by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan hanging by a thread Tuesday.

Syria's armed forces were supposed to withdraw from urban protest centres Tuesday, with a complete end to fighting designed to avert all-out civil war was scheduled to follow 48 hours later.

On Monday Washington said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had shown no sign so far that his government was sticking by the peace plan after signing on to the deal last week.

At least 105 people were killed on Monday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said after weekend violence claimed almost 180 lives, most of them civilians.

Opinion

Editorial

Kurram atrocity
22 Nov, 2024

Kurram atrocity

WITH the situation in KP’s Kurram tribal district already volatile for the past several months, the murderous...
Persistent grip
22 Nov, 2024

Persistent grip

PAKISTAN has now registered 50 polio cases this year. We all saw it coming and yet there was nothing we could do to...
Green transport
22 Nov, 2024

Green transport

THE government has taken a commendable step by announcing a New Energy Vehicle policy aiming to ensure that by 2030,...
Military option
Updated 21 Nov, 2024

Military option

While restoring peace is essential, addressing Balochistan’s socioeconomic deprivation is equally important.
HIV/AIDS disaster
21 Nov, 2024

HIV/AIDS disaster

A TORTUROUS sense of déjà vu is attached to the latest health fiasco at Multan’s Nishtar Hospital. The largest...
Dubious pardon
21 Nov, 2024

Dubious pardon

IT is disturbing how a crime as grave as custodial death has culminated in an out-of-court ‘settlement’. The...