RayKalm
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Turkey threatens military action as refugees pour in
Read more: Turkey threatens military action as refugees pour in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7d07ORRy6M&feature=player_embedded
Turkey threatened to launch a military incursion into northern Syria Thursday after refugees fleeing alleged massacres by pro-Assad forces poured across its frontiers.
The warning came as the Arab Red Crescent predicted that as many as 500,000 Syrian civilians could seek refuge in Turkey as government forces widened its recent offensive in the border province of Idlib, a stronghold of the rebel Free Syrian Army.
Turkey has said in the past that a fresh surge of refugees would make it necessary to create a safe area within Syrian territory to protect civilians. Besir Atalay, Turkey's deputy prime minister, said the move, which was considered but rejected last year, was again being contemplated.
Giving impetus to renewed calls for some kind of limited military intervention, Syrian human rights activists claimed that 23 mutilated corpses had been discovered near the city of Idlib, which fell to President Bashar Assad's forces earlier this week.
The victims, who had been blindfolded and handcuffed before being shot, bore the marks of "extreme torture," the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The killings were the latest in a series of alleged atrocities that have seen dozens of civilians, often from the same families, executed in recent days. Opposition activists say the practice is part of a new strategy of government terror aimed at emptying towns and villages known to have harboured rebels in the past.
As the uprising against Assad entered its second year Thurs-day, 200 human rights groups joined to urge Russia and China to back UN action against Syria. Both countries have vetoed UN Security Council resolutions seeking to resolve the crisis, arguing that they unfairly singled out the government for blame. At the same time, Russia has continued to supply the Assad regime with arms.
"City after city, town after town, Syria's security forces are using their scorched earth methods while the Security Council's hands remain tied by Russia and China," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch, one of the groups that issued the demand.
"One year on, the Security Council should finally stand together and send a clear message to Assad that these attacks should end."
The Syrian Observatory said that 9,113 people had died over the uprising's first year, 6,645 of them civilians.
The regime marked Syria's bloody anniversary by staging shows of loyalty. In areas where rebels have not gained a foot-hold, tens of thousands waved Syrian flags to mark the one-year anniversary of the fight against the anti-Assad protests - a sign that Assad continues to enjoy significant support, particularly outside the country's Sunni Arab majority.
Read more: Turkey threatens military action as refugees pour in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7d07ORRy6M&feature=player_embedded
