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Subscribe to RSSTurkey has authorized further military action against Syria saying it is intended to be a deterrent and to protect Turkey. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
Updated at 6:46 p.m. ET: The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned a mortar attack by Syria on a Turkish border town that killed five people and demanded that "such violations of international law stop immediately and are not repeated.''
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the shelling by the Syrian armed forces of the Turkish town of Akcakale, which resulted in the deaths of five civilians, all of whom were women and children, as well as a number of injuries. The members of the Security Council expressed their sincere condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government and people of Turkey,” the Security Council said in a statement.
“The members of the Security Council underscored that this incident highlighted the grave impact the crisis in Syria has on the security of its neighbors and on regional peace and stability. The members of the Council demanded that such violations of international law stop immediately and are not repeated. The members of the Security Council called on the Syrian Government to fully respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbors.”
The mortar attack happened on Wednesday and Turkey responded by striking targets in Syria later the same day and Thursday.
Seeking to unwind the most serious cross-border escalation in its 18-month-old crackdown on dissent, Damascus apologized through the United Nations for the shelling and said it would not happen again, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said.
Syria's staunch ally Russia said it had received assurances from Damascus that the mortar strike was a tragic accident.
But Turkey's government said "aggressive action" against its territory by Syria's military had become a serious threat to its national security and parliament approved the deployment of Turkish troops beyond its borders if needed.
"Turkey has no interest in a war with Syria. But Turkey is capable of protecting its borders and will retaliate when necessary," Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, said on his Twitter account.
"Political, diplomatic initiatives will continue," he said.
Esber Ayayadin / Anadolu Agency via EPA
Turkish soldiers and relatives of Gulsen Ozer, who was killed by a mortar bomb from Syria, attend her funeral in Turkey's southeastern border region of Akcakale, Sanliurfa, Turkey, on Thursday.
Turkey hit back after a mortar hit a residential neighborhood in Akcakale on Wednesday, killing a woman, her three daughters and another woman.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said several Syrian soldiers were killed in the Turkish retaliatory bombardment of a military post near Tel Abyad, a few miles across the frontier from Akcakale. It did not say how many soldiers died.
"We know that they have suffered losses," a Turkish security source told Reuters, without giving further details.
State Department: Missing American journalist believed held by Syrian regime
NATO said it stood by member nation Turkey and urged Syria to put an end to "flagrant violations of international law."
A mortar attack fired from Syrian territory killed five Turkish civilians, prompting Turkey to strike back. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
The U.S.-led Western military alliance held an urgent late-night meeting in Brussels to discuss the matter and in New York, Turkey asked the U.N. Security Council to take the "necessary action" to stop Syrian aggression.
In a letter to the president of the 15-nation Security Council, Turkish U.N. Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan called the firing of the mortar bomb "a breach of international peace and security."
SANA via Reuters
A look back at the violence that has overtaken Syria.
'Risks to our national security'
Turkey's parliament had already been due to vote on Thursday on extending a five-year-old authorization for foreign military operations, an agreement originally intended to allow strikes on Kurdish militant bases in northern Iraq.
But the memorandum signed by Erdogan and sent to parliament overnight said that despite repeated warnings and diplomatic initiatives, the Syrian military had launched aggressive action against Turkish territory, presenting "additional risks."
"This situation has reached a level of creating a serious threat and risks to our national security. At this point the need has emerged to take the necessary measures to act promptly and swiftly against additional risks and threats," it said.
Syria's foreign minister says US, allies support 'terrorism'
A series of suicide bombings in Syria's largest city killed scores of people. State TV reported that three explosions rocked a government-controlled district in Aleppo. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.
"Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar," Erdogan's office said in a statement late on Wednesday.
"Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security."
Syria said it was investigating the source of the mortar bomb and urged restraint. Information Minister Omran Zoabi conveyed his condolences to the Turkish people, saying his country respected the sovereignty of neighboring countries.
Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.
Some residents of Akcakale abandoned their homes close to the border and spent the night on the streets. Others gathered outside the local mayor's office, afraid to return to their homes as the dull thud of distant artillery fire rumbled across the town.
"We haven't been able to sleep in our own homes for 15 days, we had to sleep in our relatives' houses further away from the border because it's not safe down there," said shopkeeper Hadi Celik, 42, a father of five.
Washington sees Turkey as a pivotal player in backing Syria's opposition and planning for the post-Assad era. The White House said on Wednesday it stood by "our Turkish ally." But Ankara has found itself increasingly isolated and frustrated by a lack of international consensus on how to end the conflict.
Murad Sezer / Reuters
Turkish soldiers patrol near the Akcakale border gate on Thursday.
More Syria coverage from NBC News
Erdogan long cultivated good relations with Assad, but became a harsh critic after Syria's popular revolt began last year, accusing him of creating a "terrorist state." Erdogan has allowed Syrian rebels to organize on Turkish soil and pushed for a foreign-protected safe zone inside Syria.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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If History has anything to teach , the continued demand for US support by the Arab nations will eventually come to haunt them soon enough.
The actions taken by Turkey is an indication of things to come, the dominoes will begin to fall in this region, it is the Dawn of War.
SYRIA IS SCHEDULED TO BE DISPATCHED after the elections. In August Obama and Recep Erdogan (PM of Turkey) had a series of phone conversations outlining the campaign. In September Obama and Netanyahu had similar talks, also by phone. The phone conversations, as opposed to direct face to face meet, were designed to allay fears of collusion or conspiracy, yet the sense of what was discussed leaked out anyway.
Don't believe me? Watch and learn. Tensions will rise until November. After that Assad had better think about renting a UHaul for his move to Iran.
After Syria is secured, the greedy eyes of the west will consider an invasion of Iran - a major mistake. If such an attack is joined you'd better hold onto your tighty whiteys because it will be messy.
but that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
No, I don't believe you.
tighty whiteys? what the heck is that suppose to mean?
Note to Washington. STAY OUT OF THIS. Not our problem. Keep your mouths shut. No need to do ANYTHING. Just SHUT UP and stay out of it.
Looks like a great vacation destination for the soldier of fortune type of guy.
Turkey is being a stooge for the West in hopes that its cowardly acts will convince the EU to allow them to join it.
I see by your hat you are a Mullah. Think this is a good time to join the EU? Most of the EU members are thinking of jumping ship.
I'll let the bit about being a stooge and the EU pass, because who cares, but how is this cowardly?
Retaliating for a mortar strike that clearly and definitely landed in Turkey's territory, killing Turkey's citizens, isn't cowardly. And you might support Assad over the rebels, but I fail to see how Turkey's supporting the rebels is cowardly in any way.
Politics aside, there are 2 countries in the Med area you do not want to mess with...1 being Greece, as they are very proud of their heritage as well as their culture and the other are the Turks...abeit they are Islamic from religion,,,they are more moderate than others and take pride in their country...just as the Greeks do...so don't get them PO'd....
I don't understand why people drag China into this. I can understand Russia as Russia supports Syria but China does not support Syria. There is really nothing to gain from supporting Syria. Unfortunately, China's ally is North Korea. Sure both Russia and China are communist but of a different communistic philosophy. They don't even like each other. What country has the next largest population of Chinese other than China? ... United States. Because of President Obama, China and America are perhaps on the best of terms ever and China enjoys the Western ways of capitalism which helps their economy grow. The people of China enjoy the benefits of capitalism too much with their Burger King's, McDonald's, WalMart's, Volvo and KFC's sprouting up all over the place. Every year our, more and more of our American ways are being accepted and enjoyed by the people of China. New millionaires in China are being created each year through capitalistic ways. It's a pipe dream but hopefully our subtle ways of our ideology will help bring about a transition of assimilation towards democracy over the long haul. Our businesses are keeping a lot of Chinese alive...litterally I know... I've seen it. Despite the huge unemployment, life is better with our ways of capitalism mixing into their economy. The Chinese government know this and they are not going turn stupid and get involved in the middle east over Syria.
As for the Turkey, they are an ally to the U.S. Sure the U.S. will support them with F-16's and and whatever weapons they need to oblitterate the Syrians but that would be the extent of it as the size of the Turkish military is huge. Positive side: This should help create jobs in the defense sector, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and other defense contractors should benefit.
Erm... Russia isn't Communist. They're quite capitalist now, and their government isn't run by the Communist party, unlike China's.
But as for your point, I agree. China has very little to gain from any of this, no matter how it turns out. They just get a little nervous when they see NATO running sorties to support democracy. They don't want none o' that.
stan So its OK for the FING Turks to meddle in Syria's business and train and arm and training camps for these Alqaida and Muslims brother hood thugs , so they can enter Syria and kill their citizens , and for Syria just to tell them good job , so if you were in a place and some big ass try to mess with your wife and kids , you just let him stan , because he is a big ass , No buddy I will fight that SOB till I kill him or he kills me . and that's whats happening in Syria , these Alqaida thugs are funded , trained and arm by none other than Turkey , the US and the Saudis and Qatari , that is a known fact , Hillary just pledged another 45 million dollars to these thugs , the same thugs that attacked here on 9/11 and in Libya and Afghanistan , and you all people sit her and support that BS , you make up your FING mind , do you want to kill Alqaida and these thugs , or you want to train them and arm them , because our honorable senators Masters ( the Saudis and Qataris ) wants to .
You obivously can't read...did I say that the Turks wanted to meddle in Syria's business? No I stated that you do not want to get them PO'd nothing more nothing less so pls be kind enough to read what I said not what you think I said....if Turkey gets involved that is their problem not mine...are do you think otherwise.
Give turn a break, English is probably like his fourth or fifth language (despite spending his time on an English-language news site, posting in English).
And yes, turn. It is okay for Turkey to "meddle" in Syria's business, depending on what exactly that meddling is. Sovereignty doesn't mean squat in the real world, when your population is rebelling and flooding across your neighbors' borders. Turkey has a strong interest in how the Syrian rebellion turns out, and they're obviously going to use any excuse they can get to cripple Assad's military. Did you see how quickly Syria apologized for the mortar after they started getting shelled, as opposed to how they acted after they shot down Turkey's plane? Assad better watch his back...
SF..San Francisco?? my home town, but............What Turkey does is not my concern. It aggravates me when someone says something and from the looks of what they wrote did not read what I posted....otherwise who cares....
Yep, it's San Francisco. And I understand the sentiment, but just look at the guy's posts. He's clearly not fluent, and I've spent a lot of time arguing with him; most of my questions he never answers and my answers he never refutes. Naturally, I assume this is because he has difficulty with English and not because he's repeating the same invalid arguments regardless of logic.
Finally someone else is helping to blow these goat turd eaters into dust.
EV, I agree. Syria has been crying for it for years, and now here it comes. The best part is that it is (finally) Muslim against Muslim with high casualties. Hasn't been so entertaining since the Iran/Iraq war.
Maybe when the Muslim nations are finally tired of fighting, some REAL peace negotiations will be possible. Otherwise, a great strategy is to clamp off their ammo supply and then hit them tooth and nail when they are done beating themselves.
The real joke is that if mitt romney/ryan get in they will spend billions on defense. Listen up! We have more military by 5 times than we could ever need right now!! We don't need more!!! We need to cut where we can and that is not old peoples medical care. One of our now 11 aircraft carriers has more fire power than the whole Iranian air force. Why would we spend more on billion dollar planes we have not even ever used?? And that the joint chiefs say we don't need and they don't want! If you are a human being and do not have a tiny penis you would know we need less military intervention in other countries and we need to use what we have here on our "illegal" imigration boarder with the mexicans. If it were canadians south coming over all the time no one would squeal about us stopping them but oh no it is a bunch of spanish speaking monkeys that make it a racist issue. Total crap that we need to stop and start protecting our own country. Iran can't hurt us! Isreal can take care of any of them that cares to f with the jews. We don't need more wars!!! We don't need more millitary. We need to help the starving in the us and in africa if anything. The oil in the middle east is less than the oil in russa so lets work on russa and let the rag heads starve when no one but china wants their oil. Get a grip people. War is not the answer and if it is lets stop messing around and wipe em all out once and for all. No??? Then you must agree and shut off all the crap you keep posting. Constitution states our millitary is for our protection. If we don't abide by the CONSTITUTION then we have nothing and I mean nothing on our side but bs....
You're right! Mitt WOULD spend billions on a swollen defense budget, wouldn't he? Obama wouldn't do that!
What's that? He does? So that means BOTH candidates advocate totally unnecessary military spending when we're trying to cut down a deficit? Go figure.
'gobble gobble' mutha-----!
Ha! Gears of War reference!
Middle East is so messed up thanks to Obama and his supporting the muslim brotherhood. It's bad enough Obama has caused so much division in the US....but he has really screwed up the Middle East.
Obama didn't screw up the Middle East. Were you born four years ago? It was a wreck since before Obama took office, before Bush took office, before Clinton... unless you think that everything was fine and dandy when everything was run by dictators and kings. The Muslim Brotherhood is nothing compared to some of the psychotic warlords and fanatics wielding power in that region. Thanks to the Arab Spring, the region might actually drag itself forward out of the 19th century in a decade or so, and Obama has nothing to do with it.
Turkey's the 800 lb. gorilla in the room. The people in Syria have been saying on camera how great everything is but behind the camera in whispered tones about how awful it is for more than 30 years now. They finally stepped up to stand in the breach. This has nothing to do with al quaida or the muslim brotherhood. This started as peaceful protests possibly inspired by the arab spring in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, oh yeah and the failed earlier attempt in Iran. Assad started mass killing of the peaceful protesters and other civilian non-combatants which caused military desertions and political ones and the rebellion of the populace against a regime that has been standing on their necks since Assad's murdering old man held office. Now stupid as the regime is they thought they could safely bounce mortars into Turkey as a message to the refugees that no place is safe for them. But because they already have their eyeglasses on backwards they ended up stubbing the 800 lb. gorilla's toe. Mike
Call me crazy but I believe the Syrians when they say that shelling Turkey was an accident. They know that Turkey is in NATO, and they know that NATO means a common defense pact. Mess with one NATO member, take on all NATO members.
Assad may be cruel and crazy, but he's no fool. He's holding on by his fingertips against a lightly armed resistance movement. He saw what a few drones and some surveillance did to Qaddafi in Libya while the US was "leading from behind." He has to know that he doesn't stand a snowflake's chance in hell if the UK, France, Germany and the US (especially the US) decide to start enforcing no-flies, launching drone strikes, and providing intel to the insurgents. And if the US Marines show up? He'd better make sure his wife has all those lovely dresses from the Vanity Fair article packed and ready move.
Not that I think this is an optimum outcome for the US or NATO. I really want to stay the heck out of this quagmire (giggity). We've got two failed nation building projects in the last decade. We don't need a third.
Critical times hard to deal with, will be here.
How come when Turkey answers back, no one objects. If Israel answers back from rocket attacks, the world says "Show restraint". I say, go after whomever shoots at you.
Paul that is because the same reson when an arabe throughs a moltov cocktail it is a protest. but if an asan europiean, american it is a riot.....lol
These are the actions which precede the Dawn of War. If history has anything to teach us is that WAR dominates more than 1/4 of the world, however minute the unrest, it perpetuates because one country , those belief's, religion, sect, tribe ..MAN decides to annihilate the rest of the world for one purpose. Another War
Two sick political powers now kick the hell out of each other.. A country now famous for sending Boatloads of Hatred into countries evolved in Hate.. Justifies itself in bombing another Country, that murders tens of thousands of it's own civilians.. And Obama just stands by... FYI, Turkey is promised to be among the first recipients of the latest weapon in US Air Force technology! The Grumman YF-23.. Perhaps the sick man is Europe, is just gaining some practice? Must be some of that "Hope and Change" Obama promised?
See how the rest of the world stringently defends it's borders? Meanwhile, we spend time and effort determining what constitutes "spillover violence" across our southerly border with Mexico. People are dying daily on our porous border with most small ranchers afraid to leave their houses at night per the DAILY sightings of criminals sneaking into our country (they become "criminals" the second they set foot on American soil), whether they are just "illegal immigrants" (what a studid oxymoron term), Coyotes bringing in people or drug smugglers, most are armed and belligerently resistive of the border authority.
So, last week the Iranian Revolutionary Guard sends troops and armaments across Iraq in civilian aircraft for two weeks running and it becomes public. Now, this week, supposedly Syrian troops fire mortars (probably 120mm if one looks at the damage). Last week as well, Iraq had a confrontation with North Korea about flying arms in Syria to Assad from Iranian air space across Iraq and into Syria. Then, the North Korea leader (same week) starts running his mouth again about how, "Any spark at all could start a nuclear war." The Syrians don't deny the mortar attack and apologize. Lemme tell ya. If I were the Turks, i'd still want to know who's idea this was and who is actually responsible. I smell Iran in this. Why? Motive.
This just in from the US State Dept. It wasn't a terrorist attack
It WAS a Terrorist attack
It WASN'T a terrorist attack
Oooops, it actually WAS a Terrorist attack, but due to the sensitivity of this subject, we can neither confirm nor deny this.
Oh wait, we have more important things to see to now, as the potus just got his ass handed to him in the debate !
The "United Nations" has become "The League of Nations".
It doesn't matter what the "Security Council" does or doesn't do. When the council can't even agree to a sanction, you have Ethopias, Albanias, Austrias, Czechoslavakias (and that's just the 1930's, and it's not all inclusive).
As to Turkey, it won't close the straits - it's a violation of international law. It will, however, fight to defend itself and any (and all) persons within their country. The attack could have been made on Kurds living in Turkey, they would've responded.
As to the what would happen if Turkey involved itself militarily in Syria (if Syria attacked Turkey), Russia wouldn't do squat. Turkey is a NATO member, and NATO would be obligated to defend Turkey. I'm pretty sure that Russia is more worried about all those former socialist republics wanting their territory back. You know, Poland, Lithuania, Lativa, Estonia, Finland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia? Hell, maybe even Novgorod.
But it's not going to come to that. The threat of foriegn involvement may make Assad actually come to the table. He'll be out, of course, but then the Arab League would be available to assist with any potential transitional government.
Of course, what everyone has missed is simply this: Syria used to be part of Turkey.
So was Israel.
We should make sure the rebels get enough guns to have a bloody stalemate with the Syrian government, then blockade both sides from getting more guns. Just send them boards with nails in them, so when they run out of bullets, they can club each other to death.
It amazes me that people on here think it is ok for turkey to respond to syria's attacks but there are those of you who believe that israel should just take the mortars and rocket attacks and do nothing when they are sent in by hezbollah and ha mas.
Oh yes, you are reminding us of the eternal 'victim' Jews. right?
The whole world hates these parasite Bass Terds with a passion because all they do is sit in their synagoges and do their head (((thumping))) with the Torah in hand, right? You need to Google 'Jewish massacres in the Middle East' and that should keep you well informed until your Social Security checks start coming (If 'Mitt Rob-Me' hasn't decided to send the money to the Cayman Israel's and open up a kosher casino along with that 'other' Jewish casino magnate low life with his whorehouse casinos in Macau.
And are the Jewish massacres somehow worse than the Islamist massacres? Or are we just ignoring those?