More than 100 killed in Syria fighting

Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT -- As Turkey sought to increase its military presence along its border with Syria, opposition fighters inside Syria were waging an offensive yesterday to seize a strategic city in Idlib province.

The offensive led to some of the most intense government air attacks to date on the city of Maarat al-Nuaman and left more than 60 people dead, at least 40 of them civilians, activists said. They were among at least 115 people killed across the country yesterday in the ongoing conflict.

The clashes and government airstrikes came as NATO said yesterday that it has plans in place to protect and defend Turkey, if necessary, after almost a week of cross-border shelling between the two countries.

Last week, five Turks were killed when a Syrian mortar landed in a Turkish town. On Monday, Turkey sent 25 fighter jets to an air base near the border.

"Obviously, Turkey has a right to defend herself within international law," said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, speaking at a defense ministers meeting in Brussels.

In Maarat al-Nuaman, Free Syrian Army rebels launched an offensive Monday to seize the city from government control and attacked numerous military checkpoints.

"The fighting won't end until all the checkpoints are gone," said Ahmad Halabi, an activist in the city. For months, regular artillery attacks on the city have been launched from the checkpoints, he said. But the rebel push, if successful, would do more than just put the city of more than 100,000 residents under opposition control.

The city is strategically situated on the main highway linking Aleppo and the capital, Damascus. If the rebels are able to seize this part of the highway, they could control the road from the Turkish border and the central city of Hama, ensuring a crucial supply line for weapons and aid, Halabi said. It would also disrupt the government reinforcements and isolate the few army and security forces bases left in Idlib.

Meanwhile, in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, activists discovered 25 charred bodies in the orchards. The discovery of mass executions of civilians, who activists say are killed at the hands of government forces, is occurring with regularity across Syria.