AA photo            

ANKARA - The Associated Press

Syrian forces fired across the border at protesters at a refugee camp in Turkey today, wounding a Turkish translator and at least two Syrian refugees, in the first such attack since Turkey began sheltering thousands of refugees last summer, authorities said.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, said Turkey immediately protested the incident to the Syrian charge d’affaires and asked that the fire be halted.
Two refugees and one Turkish citizen, a translator, were wounded inside the camp near the town of Kilis in the southwestern Gaziantep province, he said.

Gaziantep Gov. Yusuf Odabaş said the translator had entered the camp to try to help calm a protest against the Syrian regime. Border crossings from Syria into the Kilis area were stopped after the attack, the governor said.

Turkish security forces were reinforced in the well-marked border area following the attack, state television said.

Odabas said, meanwhile, that two of 13 Syrians who had been wounded in clashes inside Syria and were brought to Kilis for treatment earlier Monday have died.

More than 24,000 refugees have crossed from Syria into Turkey. Syrian forces are escalating attacks across the country to try to crush a 13-month uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Separately, a leading international human rights group said Syrian forces have summarily executed more than 100 people, most of them civilians. This includes several mass executions in the restive provinces of Homs and Idlib, Monday’s report by Human Rights Watch said.

The New-York-based group says it only included cases corroborated by witnesses but has received more reports of similar incidents. The executions took place over the past four months, with most in March.
An internationally brokered truce requires Syrian forces to pull out of population centers by Tuesday. But Assad’s government now wants guarantees that rebels will lay down their arms.

April/09/2012

#Syria Video of the injured from the #Assad regime attack on #Kilis Camp this morn #Turkey 4-9bit.ly/HqSOl4#SaveSyria #armFSA

— ⒼⓁⓄⒷⒶⓁⓇⒺⓋⓄⓁⓊⓉⒾⓄⓃⒾⓈⓂ (@BAPHORSE2012) April 9, 2012

KILIS, Turkey — Dozens of Syrian expatriates from a convoy barred from taking aid into Syria camped overnight near Turkey’s border with their homeland in a protest against President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on protests.

Drawn from California to the Arab Gulf, up to 150 people, mainly Syrian diaspora, had come to Turkey to join a campaign launched on the social network website Facebook for a “Freedom Convoy to Syria.”

“I am participating here to send a message to the people of Syria that the people abroad stand with them. We are also sending a message to the regime that Syrians abroad care,” Amar Babelli, a customs clearance officer in Dublin, told Reuters.

Now 43, Babelli left Syria to study abroad when he was 19, but he plans to go home if Assad is forced from power by protests and a growing armed insurgency.

“After the regime collapses and democracy is established, I plan to be there. I’m sure the regime is finished but it is costing a lot of lives,” he said, at the camp set up on a baseball pitch surrounded by muddy fields near the town of Kilis, some 15 km (10 miles) from the border.

The convoy of buses and cars had left Gaziantep, a city in southeast Turkey, Thursday, only to be denied entry to Syria a few hours later.

Wrapped in blankets, some 35 activists emerged from their flimsy tents Friday morning shivering against the cold and rain. They had kept spirits up chanting protest slogans and singing Arabic songs.

RETURN TO BORDER

Turkish soldiers handed out cups of hot tea, but the Turkish authorities said they had not extended official support.

“It was absolutely freezing. It was one of the toughest nights we have ever had. But it was also one of the most enjoyable nights,” said Hussam Arwani, 27, who runs a family business in Dubai, but hails from Hama, a town that is one of the focal points of resistance against Assad.

“We spoke all night long. We shared all of the things which we’ve experienced. We tried to feel what our people inside Syria are feeling,” he said.

Others members of the convoy spent the night in nearby towns.

The protesters planned to visit the border again later on Friday and aimed to stay in the region for three days.

Some of the activists said their own relatives had been killed by Assad’s security forces, others said they had left Syria after being tortured, while some came from families who had quit the country decades earlier, when Assad’s father carried out an even more violent repression.

“My father left the country in 1981 after the massacre in Hama… He was beaten and tortured,” said Mazen Hachimi, a 29-year-old credit risk analyst from Riyadh.

“It is the hope of all of Syrians abroad to rebuild our country, into a democratic one without extremists forces.”

Tarif Khashaneh, 39, left his home in a Damascus suburb in March, when the anti-Assad protests broke out, and found work with an IT company in Saudi Arabia.

“We are trying to help to relieve the suffering of the people there. but there is no way to reach them. By being here we are sending the message that we share their suffering,” Khashaneh said.

Wearing a pre-Assad green, white and black Syrian flag wrapped around his neck, Khashaneh said there were proposals for more protest action in Turkey’s southeast province of Hatay, where several thousand Syrian refugees have been given shelter in camps.

“God willing, next time we will protest in Antakya and we will bring more people, more than a thousand, thousands.”

13 Jan 2012 12:12

Source: reuters // Reuters

By Daren Butler

KILIS, Turkey Jan 13 (Reuters) - Dozens of Syrian expatriates from a convoy barred from taking aid into Syria camped overnight near Turkey’s border with their homeland in a protest against President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on protests.

Drawn from California to the Arab Gulf, up to 150 people, mainly Syrian diaspora, had come to Turkey to join a campaign launched on the social network website Facebook for a “Freedom Convoy to Syria”.

“I am participating here to send a message to the people of Syria that the people abroad stand with them. We are also sending a message to the regime that Syrians abroad care,” Amar Babelli, a customs clearance officer in Dublin, told Reuters.

Now 43, Babelli left Syria to study abroad when he was 19, but he plans to go home if Assad is forced from power by protests and a growing armed insurgency.

“After the regime collapses and democracy is established, I plan to be there. I’m sure the regime is finished but it is costing a lot of lives,” he said, at the camp set up on a baseball pitch surrounded by muddy fields near the town of Kilis, some 15 km (10 miles) from the border.

The convoy of buses and cars had left Gaziantep, a city in southeast Turkey, on Thursday, only to be denied entry to Syria a few hours later.

Wrapped in blankets, some 35 activists emerged from their flimsy tents on Friday morning shivering against the cold and rain. They had kept spirits up chanting protest slogans and singing Arabic songs.

RETURN TO BORDER

Turkish soldiers handed out cups of hot tea, but the Turkish authorities said they had not extended official support.

“It was absolutely freezing. It was one of the toughest nights we have ever had. But it was also one of the most enjoyable nights,” said Hussam Arwani, 27, who runs a family business in Dubai, but hails from Hama, a town that is one of the focal points of resistance against Assad.

“We spoke all night long. We shared all of the things which we’ve experienced. We tried to feel what our people inside Syria are feeling,” he said.

Others members of the convoy spent the night in nearby towns.

The protesters planned to visit the border again later on Friday and aimed to stay in the region for three days.

Some of the activists said their own relatives had been killed by Assad’s security forces, others said they had left Syria after being tortured, while some came from families who had quit the country decades earlier, when Assad’s father carried out an even more violent repression.

“My father left the country in 1981 after the massacre in Hama… He was beaten and tortured,” said Mazen Hachimi, a 29-year-old credit risk analyst from Riyadh.

“It is the hope of all of Syrians abroad to rebuild our country, into a democratic one without extremists forces.”

Tarif Khashaneh, 39, left his home in a Damascus suburb in March, when the anti-Assad protests borke out, and found work with an IT company in Saudi Arabia.

“We are trying to help to relieve the suffering of the people there. but there is no way to reach them. By being here we are sending the message that we share their suffering,” Khashaneh said.

Wearing a pre-Assad green, white and black Syrian flag wrapped around his neck, Khashaneh said there were proposals for more protest action in Turkey’s southeast province of Hatay, where several thousand Syrian refugees have been given shelter in camps.

“God willing, next time we will protest in Antakya and we will bring more people, more than a thousand, thousands.” (Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore)