Syria on Monday bombed a security building that had been taken over by rebels on the Turkish border, wounding at least 11 people and sending dozens of civilians fleeing across the frontier, a Turkish official said.
A day earlier, Lebanese soldiers exchanged fire with Syrian rebels across their border, media reports said, fuelling concerns that the Arab Spring’s longest and deadliest revolt could spark a regional war.
The violence came as Russian President Vladimir Putin headed to Turkey for talks likely to be overshadowed by the two countries’ differences over Syria.
An official from the Mayor’s office in the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar said a Syrian jet targeted a security building that has been taken over by the rebels, dropping two bombs on an area some 300 meters (yards) from the Turkish border.
Turkish ambulances rushed to the border and least 11 wounded Syrians were brought to Ceylanpinar’s hospital for treatment, according to the official.
Television footage from Turkey’s Anadolu agency showed a large plume of smoke rising over the town, and dozens of Syrian civilians were also seen fleeing into Turkey after crossing through a barbed wire fence at the border.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said late Sunday that Lebanese soldiers stationed near the village of Qaa in the Bekaa Valley returned fire into Syria after “armed men” shot at them from across the frontier.
The agency quoted a statement from the Lebanese army that said the exchange of fire took place Sunday and that there were no casualties.
Clinton warns Syria
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says Syrian action on chemical weapons remains a “red line” for the Obama administration that would prompt action from the United States.
Speaking in Prague, Ms Clinton didn’t address news reports of fresh activity at Syrian chemical weapons depots.
But she stressed on Monday that Washington would address any threat that arises.
US President Barack Obama declared the Assad regime’s deployment or use of chemical weapons a “red line” for U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war earlier this year.
