Turkish Border Guards Reportedly Kill 11 Syrian Refugees

Turkish border guards fired live ammunition at Syrians attempting to cross the border on Saturday, killing at least 11 people, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday.

Most of the victims were members of one family, including four children, but the death toll is expected to rise as a number of people are in critical condition.

The report claimed that the victims were killed as they attempted to cross the border from the village of Khirbet al-Joz, in the northern countryside of Jisr al-Shughour, in Idlib province, according to the Observatory. But Turkish military sources denied the reports.

“Claims that Turkish soldiers killed nine people that were trying to cross the border in Hatay province … are not true. Last night there was an attempt to cross the border illegally but no shots were fired directly on people,” a Turkish military source told Reuters. “After warning shots, a group of seven to eight people ran towards the woods,” the source said.

This isn’t the first time that Turkish border guards have been accused of firing on Syrians attempting to cross the border. Last month Human Rights Watch released a report claiming that between March and May, Turkish border guards killed at least five Syrian refugees, including one child, who were attempting to cross the border.

Nearly 60 Syrian civilians have been killed while trying to flee Syria in similar shooting incidents at the Turkish border since the start of this year, the Observatory reported.

Syrian Government Advances on Raqqa

The Syrian government, backed by Russian airstrikes, advanced on the town of al-Tabqa, west of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), over the weekend.

Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out at least 18 airstrikes on the town on Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. On the ground, forces aligned with the Syrian government advanced to within 6 miles (10km) of the Tabqa air base, which ISIS has controlled since August 2014, the Associated Press reported.

Residents fled the area amid the increase in aerial bombardments, and at least six people were killed in the bombings, the anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently reported on Facebook, according to Al-Jazeera.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an opposition faction comprised of Arab and Kurdish fighters, is also advancing toward al-Tabqa. Last week, U.S. Central Command announced that SDF forces had successfully completed the first step of their operation to push ISIS militants out of Manbij, one of their hubs in northern Syria. The U.S.-led coalition is supporting the operation and has carried out more than 190 airstrikes against ISIS in the vicinity since the operation began more than two weeks ago.

Assad Gets a Surprise Visit From Russian Defense Minister

Russia’s defense minister met President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to discuss “military cooperation” between the two states, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.

“The talks focused on military cooperation between the two countries and joint action to fight against terrorist organizations on Syrian soil,” SANA reported.

Defense minister Sergei Shoigu met the Syrian president during an unannounced visit to Damascus, reportedly on the orders of Russian president Vladimir Putin, according to Al-Jazeera.

A statement by the Russian Defense Ministry echoed SANA’s report, and said the talks focused on the “current questions of military and technical cooperation … as well as certain aspects of the cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups operating in Syria.”

The surprise meeting comes after the U.S. voiced its “strong concerns” to Russia last week about Moscow’s reported bombing of rebels, in a video conference between Pentagon officials and their Russian counterparts.

The U.S. accused Russia of bombing American-backed forces fighting ISIS in al-Tanaf area near the Syrian-Jordanian border, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Recommended Reads:

• The Daily Beast: U.S. Diplomats Are Right on Syria
• Foreign Policy: The Syria Dissent Channel Message Means the System Is Working
• Al-Arabiya: Syria is Obama’s Shame
• The New York Times: What I Saw in Syria
• War on the Rocks: Fear and Loathing in the Levant: Turkey Changes Its Syria Policy