Refugee crisis mushrooms as Syrian army attacks with tanks, heavy weapons near T

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Refugee crisis mushrooms as Syrian army attacks with tanks, heavy weapons near

Turkish border

By Bassem Mroue,Selcan Hacaoglu, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 21

minutes ago

BOYNUYOGUN REFUGEE CAMP, Turkey - Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy

machine-guns swept into a village near the Turkish border Saturday, forcing more

people displaced by the crackdown on anti-government protesters to flee across

the frontier.

The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents protests, said troops

backed by six tanks and several armoured personnel carriers entered Bdama in the

morning. The village, about 12 miles (20 kilometres) from the Turkish border,

had a bakery that was the sole source of bread for nearly 2,000 displaced people

crowded near the border who had hoped not to have to flee to the Turkish

tent-city sanctuary. The town was also supplying medicine and other foodstuffs

to them.

Without that critical lifeline, some women and children were already crossing

into Turkey Saturday afternoon.

The three-month uprising against President Bashar Assad's rule has proved

stunningly resilient despite a relentless crackdown by the military, pervasive

security forces and pro-regime gunmen. Human rights activists say more than

1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as Assad tries to maintain

his grip on power.

Along the border Saturday, those displaced near Bdama said they were running

short of supplies.

" We still have some potatoes, rice and powdered milk but they will run out

soon, " said Jamil Saeb, one of the Syrians who had so far decided to stay in

Syria. " This is our first day without bread. "

Saeb said there are children who are sick and there is no medicine. Others are

picking apples for lack of other food.

" We are living in catastrophic conditions, " he said.

" We are besieged by the border fence from one side and the Syrian army from the

other, " Saeb said by telephone. " We are expecting a humanitarian crisis within

hours if Turkey does not send aid to us. "

The British Foreign office, meanwhile, urged Britons in Syria to leave the

country " immediately. " In a statement posted on the website of the British

Embassy in Syria, the Foreign Office said Britons should leave " now by

commercial means while these are still operating. "

The statement said those who stay should understand it would be unlikely the

British Embassy in Damascus could provide a normal consular service if there was

a " further breakdown in law and order. "

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal will be sponsoring a draft resolution at

the U.N. Security Council to condemn Syria.

The attack on Bdama occurred a day after Syrian forces swept into Maaret

al-Numan, a town on the highway linking Damascus, the capital, with Syria's

largest city, Aleppo. Saturday's assault on Bdama was about 25 miles (40

kilometres) to the west.

Also Saturday, the committees raised the death toll in Friday's anti-government

protests to 19.

Bdama is next to Jisr al-Shughour, a town that was spinning out of government

control before the military recaptured it last Sunday. Activists had reported

fighting in Jisr al-Shughour between loyalist troops and defectors who refused

to take part in a continuing crackdown on protesters seeking Assad's ouster.

Saeb, the man on the border, said he fled Jisr al-Shughour shortly before the

army took control. He declared he would rather die on the run or become an exile

than face arrest and torture by members of Syria's secret services.

" If the army advances here we will flee to Turkey, " Saeb said.

The fighting in the area, which started nearly two weeks ago, displaced

thousands of people including some 10,100 who are sheltered in Turkish refugee

camps. On Friday, U.N. envoy Angelina Jolie travelled to Turkey's border with

Syria to meet some of the thousands of Syrian refugees.

A Turkish villager near the border with Syria said hundreds of Syrians were

crossing over Saturday afternoon, fleeing the army advance.

" We expect more people to cross overnight, " said the man, who would not give his

name, fearing retribution.

Carol Batchelor, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees in Turkey, said coping with the flow of Syrians was challenging.

" We have offered our full support from the United Nations, from each of our

agencies, for any support that might be needed. Turkey has said for the time

being they are able to manage the situation, to cope with the circumstances, "

she said.

The uprising is the boldest challenge to the Assad family's 40-year dynasty in

Syria. Assad, now 45, inherited power in 2000, raising hopes that the lanky,

soft-spoken young leader might transform his late father's stagnant and brutal

dictatorship into a modern state.

But over the past 11 years, hopes dimmed that Assad was a reformist. He is

showing himself as a hard-liner determined to keep power at all costs.

In Friday's demonstrations, 12 people were killed in the central city of Homs,

two in the eastern town of Deir el-Zour, two in the Damascus suburb of Harasta,

and one in the northern city of Aleppo. A boy believed to be 16 years old, who

was in the streets protesting, and another person died in the southern village

of Dael, the Local Coordination Committees said.

In Homs, most of the shops in the centre were closed Saturday for the funeral of

the dead. The procession, in which about 7,000 people participated, ended

peacefully.

In neighbouring Lebanon, the army finished its deployment in the northern city

of Tripoli a day after clashes between supporters and opponents of the Syrian

regime. Seven people were killed and 59 wounded.