(Reuters) - NATO said it had drawn up plans to defend Turkey if necessary should the war in Syria spill over their border again as dozens of people were killed across the Arab nation on Tuesday.
Fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces could be heard from this Turkish border town following on from several days of clashes in the past week. One Syrian villager said a rebel push on the town of Azmarin was expected soon.
In Damascus, rebel suicide bombers struck at an Air Force Intelligence compound used as an interrogation centre - the latest attack to bring the conflict close to President Bashar al-Assad’s power base.
“Assad…is only able to stand up with crutches,” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party. “He will be finished when the crutches fall away.”
Erdogan, reacting to six consecutive days when shells fired from Syrian soil have landed on Turkish territory, has warned Ankara will not shrink from war if forced to act.
But his government has also stressed it would be reluctant to mount any big operation on Syrian soil and then only with international support.
It was not clear whether the shells hitting Turkish territory were aimed to strike there or were due to Syrian troops overshooting as they attacked rebels to their north.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in Brussels the 28-member military alliance hoped a way could be found to stop tensions escalating on the border.
“We have all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary,” he said.
