Syrian forces attack Turkish refugee camps

Shots fired by Syrian forces early Wednesday have hit a Syrian refugee camp just across the border with Turkey, Turkish media reported. News channel CNN-Turk showed images of automatic rifle fire towards Turkish territory from a border surveillance building flying the Syrian flag near Kilis in southeastern Turkey. Several television stations reported that troops had fired at Syrians trying to cross no man’s land on the frontier to seek refuge in Turkey from the violence rocking Syria. Bullets hit a nearby camp of prefabricated buildings without wounding anyone but causing panic among the refugee population. On Monday, shooting from the Syrian side of the border wounded four Syrians and two Turks on Turkish soil. “It was a very clear violation of the border,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Beijing. “Obviously we will take the necessary measures,” he was quoted as saying by the Turkish news agency Anatolia. Turkey, a one-time ally of the Syrian regime but now one of its strongest critics, is home to around 25,000 Syrians in several camps set up in three provinces, an operation its prime minister deemed costly. “We have already spent $150 million (114 million euros)... What are we to do if this exodus reaches 100,000 people?” Erdogan said Tuesday, urging the international community to help Turkey house the Syrians. On Wednesday, the joint special envoy of the United Nations and the league of Arab states for Syria, Kofi Annan, said that he received confirmation from Syria to ceasefire. Opposition groups said Syrian troops killed 31 people on Tuesday, and Turkish media reported heavy gunfire coming from what appeared to be an army post topped with a Syrian flag a short distance from the Turkish border. Opposition activists say more than 800 Syrians have been killed since Assad accepted Annan’s peace proposals on March 27. More than 9,000 people have been killed since the revolt erupted in March 2011, according to UN figures.