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| Turkish military station at the border gate with Syria, across from Syrian rebel-controlled Tel Abyad town, in Akcakale, Turkey, Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012. |
AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) -- Turkey and Syria fired artillery and mortars across their volatile border for a fifth consecutive day on Sunday, in one of the most serious and prolonged flare-ups of violence along the frontier.
The
exchange of fire stoked fears that Syria's civil war will escalate into
a regional conflagration drawing in NATO member Turkey, once an ally of
President Bashar Assad but now a key supporter of the rebels fighting
to topple him.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu had warned on Saturday that Ankara would respond forcefully to
each errant Syrian shell that lands on Turkish soil.
Ankara's
warning was coupled by an apparent diplomatic push by the Turkish
leadership to promote Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa as a
possible figure to head a transitional administration to end the
conflict in the country.
In an interview with
Turkish state television TRT Saturday, Davutoglu said that al-Sharaa was
a figure
"whose hands are not contaminated in blood" and therefore
acceptable to Syrian opposition groups.
It was
not clear whether the Turkish stance was coordinated with other allies,
but the candid remarks by Davutoglu suggested some consensus might be
emerging over a future role for him.
Al-Sharaa,
73, a close associate and longtime loyalist to the Assad family, has
been a controversial figure since the start of the uprising.
He
appeared in public in late August for the first time in weeks, ending
repeated rumors that he had defected. The regime has suffered a string
of prominent defections in recent months, though Assad's inner circle
and military have largely kept their cohesive stance behind him.
Early
on in the uprising, the Syrian president delegated to al-Sharaa, a
skilled diplomat, responsibility for holding a dialogue with the
opposition. A Sunni from the southern town of Daraa, birthplace of the
Syrian uprising, al-Sharaa's silence since the start of the uprising
made him a prime candidate for rumors that he broke with the regime.
"No
one knows the system better than Farouk al-Sharaa," said Davutoglu,
adding that al-Sharaa has not been involved in the violence and
massacres in Syria.
The Syrian opposition is
deeply fragmented, and various factions would likely disagree on whether
they would accept him to lead a transitional government.
Meanwhile,
there was little sign that the exchange of fire near the border,
although still at a fairly low level, was ebbing. It began five days ago
when a Syrian shell killed five civilians in a Turkish border town.
Turkey's parliament subsequently approved a bill that would allow cross
border military operations there.
Damascus offered a rare apology, but shells and mortar rounds continue to fly into Turkish territory.
On
Sunday, an Associated Press journalist witnessed a round landing some
200 meters (yards) inside Turkey, near the border town of Akcakale. A
short time later, eight artillery shells could be heard fired from
Turkey.
In the Turkish town of Akcakale, mayor
Abdulhakim Ayhan said shrapnel from the Syrian mortar round caused some
damage to a grain depot, but no one was hurt. He confirmed that Turkish
artillery immediately returned fire.
The
Anadolu Agency reported that Assad's forces have been shelling the town
of Tal Abyad, just across from Akcakale, which is controlled by Syrian
rebels.
Turkey's private Dogan news agency
reported that a six-vehicle military convoy, including two carrying
howitzers, was seen traveling from the city of Gaziantep toward the
Syrian border.
Inside Syria, forces loyal to
Assad clashed with rebels across the country, from the northern city of
Aleppo to the southern border with Jordan, killing according to activist
groups at least 90 people across the country. Activists said opposition
fighters were strengthening their hold over the village off Khirbet
al-Jouz, in the northern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey and
where violent clashes broke out a day earlier.
The
Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency said Sunday that the rebels had
regained full control of Khirbet al-Jouz. It said the Syrian army was
forced to "pull back" following an "offensive" by some 700 rebels.
It
also reported that Assad's troops were forced to retreat some 20
kilometers (12 miles) toward the town of Jisr al-Shughour. It said
rebels in Khirbet al-Jouz celebrated their victory by firing their
weapons into the air.
The Britain-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said regime forces pulled out of two
villages in the Idlib countryside near Turkey. In Khirbet al-Jouz,
wounded Syrian soldiers were left to fend for themselves after
government troops were forced to retreat from the area, the Observatory
said.
The reports could not be independently confirmed, and it was not clear whether the wounded soldiers were captured by the rebels.
In
Damascus, a car bomb exploded in the parking lot of the local police
headquarters in central Damascus, killing one member of the military,
the state-run SANA news agency said. The explosion is the latest in a
series of bombs and suicide attack targeting security personnel and
government institutions.
Elsewhere, Syrian
troops were widening their offensive to retake rebel-held areas in the
northern city of Aleppo and the suburbs of Damascus, as well as the
central province of Homs and villages on the southern border with
Jordan.
The Observatory said some of the
heaviest fighting Sunday was in Aleppo province. At least three people
were killed and scores were wounded when the army pounded the town of
Manbaj in Aleppo's suburbs.
Syria's defense
minister said Saturday that the government is ready to give amnesty to
rebels who repent and those who don't "will be crushed under the feet of
our soldiers."
Gen. Fahd Jassem al-Freij, who
became defense minister in July after his predecessor was assassinated,
also claimed that the regime was getting the upper hand. "The most
dangerous parts of the conspiracy have been passed and the killing is on
its way to decline," he said.
Damascus denies
it is facing a popular uprising, instead blaming the violence on a
foreign conspiracy to punish it for its support for anti-Israeli groups
such as Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Despite the
government's claims of being on the brink of restoring stability, the
violence across the country shows no signs of abating. Activists say
that more than 30,000 people have been killed since the anti-Assad
uprising began.
