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Turkey condemns Syrian assault near border

Arab World Materials 22 December 2011 08:23 (UTC +04:00)

Turkey's foreign minister has condemned Syrian troop assaults on a town close to the Turkish border Today `s Zaman reproted

Ahmet Davutoglu said Wednesday "it is unacceptable" that so many people were killed even after Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime agreed to an Arab League plan to halt the bloodshed. "He added that Turkey will make every effort to make Arab League initiative successful," he said.

Turkey supports the Arab League initiative and that Turkey wants this initiative to be successful, Davutoglu told reporters, standing with former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri who earlier had talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday.

Activists said Wednesday at least 100 people were killed with machine gun fire and shelling in a northwest town in one of the deadliest episodes of the 9-month-old uprising. Violence near the Turkish border have left more than 200 people dead in two days.

The assaults came as the Arab League is planning to send an advance team on Thursday to prepare for an observer mission.

Turkish foreign minister said Turkey is closely following the events in Syria and Turkey hopes this massacre will end soon.

Hariri told reporters that he discussed latest regional developments with Erdoğan in their talks and added that it seems Syria's embattled president increased his death mechanism after signing the protocols. He stressed that the protocols are not only about sending monitors and that Syria is also bound to live up to its committments such as ending bloodshed and military crackdown.

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