Turkish officials say Syrian forces fired around the border at a refugee camp, wounding no less than five people Monday, an afternoon before a U.N.-brokered cease-fire is meant to take effect.
According to Syrian activists, two people were killed inside the attack near a refugee camp within the southeastern Kilis region. About 25,000 refugees are currently housed in camps in Turkey's three provinces bordering Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the incident began early Monday when Syria's armed opposition attacked President Bashar al-Assad's security forces at a border checkpoint. Activists said Syrian rebel fighters killed not less than six members of Syria's security forces.
Monday's border incident is the 1st of its kind since Turkey began sheltering thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing a bloody crackdown on a 13-month anti-government uprising, but similar attacks have occurred along Syria's border with Lebanon.
Lebanese media reported Monday that a television journalist was shot dead in crossfire inside the border region. Lebanon's Al-Jadeed satellite television blamed the Syrian army for the death of cameraman Ali Shaaban, saying troops opened fire at its crew, which was on Lebanon's side of the border. There has been no independent confirmation of the shooting circumstances.
Annan Turkey visit scheduled
International envoy Kofi Annan is to go to probably the most Syrian refugee camps in Turkey on Tuesday in a previously scheduled trip.
Annan's six-point peace plan, including a cease-fire, is to enter effect on Tuesday, but Syria's violence has escalated in recent days with the killing of about 175 people.
A video released Monday via a social media network purports to reveal a spokesman from the Free Syrian Army joint command, Col. Qassem Saad Eddin, announcing the rebels' commitment to the approaching cease-fire.
"The joint command of the Free Syria Army inside Syria announces its complete commitment the U.N. envoy Kofi Annan, consistent with the U.N. Security Council resolution which requires a cease-fire from all parties," the speaker said on video. "We can honor this promise if the regime remains committed to the initiative."
Assad's government said Sunday it wants iron-clad "written guarantees" that insurgents would stop fighting before it withdraws troops from cities.
But the commander for the rebel Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, said it should not give guarantees to the Syrian government.
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry urged the Syrian government and opposition groups to abide by pledges for a cease-fire.
Separately, a world rights group said Syrian forces have summarily executed greater than 100 people, mostly civilians, in the past four months, mostly in March. Monday's report by Human Rights Watch said this includes several mass executions within the restive provinces of Homs and Idlib. The hot York-based group said report authors included only cases corroborated by witnesses, but that they received more reports of comparable incidents.
U.N. officials have said greater than 9,000 people was killed in Syria because the uprising began greater than a year ago.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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