Cross-border gunfire: Syrian bullets kill 1 in Turkey

BEIRUT?? Updated 10:47 a.m. ET: Syrian forces on Monday fired across the border at a refugee camp in Turkey, killing one and wounding four, activists said - the first such attack since Ankara began allowing in thousands of refugees to find shelter in the country.

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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the incident began at about 4 a.m. Monday when opposition fighters attacked Syrian forces at the Salameh border crossing with Syria.

Later, local activists within Syria said Syrian military forces killed at least 30 people on Monday, mostly women and children, when they bombarded a town in the central province of Hama, local activists said.

They said 17 children and eight women were among those killed in al-Latmana, northwest of the city of Hama.

Reuters reported that video footage showed rescuers pulling people, covered in fine grey dust, out of what appeared to be the wreckage of a collapsed building. Syria has placed tight restrictions on media access, making it hard to verify such witness accounts.

In another development Monday, a cameraman for Lebanon's Al-Jadeed television channel was shot dead near Lebanon's northern border with Syria, the television channel said.

Sources at the channel said cameraman Ali Shaaban was killed and an Al-Jadeed colleague was wounded in the shooting which took place in the border region between Syria and Lebanon's northern Wadi Khaled district. There were no other immediate details of the incident.

At the Turksih refugee camp, a protracted gunbattle ensued between the rebels and Syrian troops trapped at the border crossing, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, a spokesman for the Observatory. Abdul-Rahman said several government soldiers were killed in the ambush.

Earlier Monday the Observatory said the Syrian rebels had killed at least six members of the Syrian security forces and customs officials in clashes near the border.

The fighting spilled over into Turkey when eight wounded opposition fighters escaped to the camp on the Turkish border and Syrian forces kept firing at them, Abdul-Rahman said.

The incident occurred at the Kilis border refugee camp in Turkey's southern Gaziantep province.

The spokesman said five people were injured in the camp and one later died of his injuries.

"After this incident the Syrian Charge d'Affaires in Ankara was called and we demanded an end to this,'' a Turkish foreign ministry official told Reuters.

According to Al-Jazeera, bullet-holes were seen at four homes at the camp.

Uprising
Around 10 miles to the south, government forces bombarded the town of Tall Rifaat, the Observatory said, adding that there were reports that dozens of people had been killed or wounded, but it had no immediate details.

President Assad has been trying to crush an uprising against his rule which erupted a year ago. The United Nations says his forces have killed 9,000 people while Syrian authorities, who blame foreign-backed militants for the violence, say 2,500 soldiers and police have been killed.

The Syrian government said on Sunday it wanted written guarantees that insurgents would stop fighting before it pulls back its troops under the terms of a U.N. peace plan which called for all sides in Syria to cease-fire by Thursday.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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