Turkey, Syria exchange artillery fire for 5th day

English.news.cn   2012-10-08 05:23:41

ANKARA, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Another Syrian mortar shell fell inside the Turkish territory on Sunday, prompting the retaliatory artillery fire by the Turkish army in a fifth straight day, local newspaper Today's Zaman reported.

The Syrian shell landed near the Turkish border town of Akcakale, and the Turkish troops responded by firing mortar shells, making it the fifth day of clashes between the two neighboring countries, said the report.

Abdulhakim Ayhan, the mayor of Akcakale, confirmed that Turkish artillery immediately returned fire.

On Wednesday, a mortar shell from the Syrian side fell in the Turkish border town of Akcakale in Sanliurfa province and killed five Turks.

The Turkish government said Wednesday in a statement that "Our armed forces in border region have given the required response in line with the rule of engagements. Targets in Syria, which were detected by radar, were shot by shelling."

"Turkey will never remain unresponsive against these sorts of provocations of Syrian regime within the framework of rules of engagement and international law," the statement said.

In an emergency session on Thursday, the Turkish parliament approved a motion for cross-border military operations inside Syria.

Ankara has been complaining about the spillover of Syrian artillery and gunfire into its territory, and has last week said it would act if mortar strikes were repeated from Syria.

Turkey, once an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but now a leading voice urging his ouster, shelters over 90,000 Syrian refugees and has reportedly provided Syrian rebel army leaders with sanctuary.

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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-10/08/c_123791993.htm

I think this might continue ongoing. The danger as I have said before is not that Turkey takes over Syria because that might actually create order of the Syrian people in this awful situation. The danger is that since this is obviously now a 2nd Cold War situation with the U.S. and most of Europe and the world on one side with the Syrian Rebels  versus Assad, the Syrian President being supported by Russia, China and Iran. So, the real danger here is a much wider conflagration throughout the middle east. I see the problem being that Sunnis and Shias in the end might either cancel each other out somehow in the middle east or Iran might get a hold of a nuclear weapon and hold the middle east hostage psychologically. This is a very dangerous time in regard to the price of oil and the survival of nations that need oil to survive these times. Since Iran's economy is now collapsing along with the Iranian Rial this is very dangerous on a variety of levels for the whole world. 

Unfortunately, having watched the 1st cold war from childhood in the 1950s until it ended around 1990, this sort of thing could cause the deaths of literally multimillions of people worldwide. Deaths by warfare in Syria and surrounding countries and deaths by starvation worldwide from not enough oil or oil too expensive to move food to eat for half the world. 

This is really awful for the whole world now with much more to come. I think Russia's and China's point of view is sort of cynical without caring how many people die in the middle east or around the world from war or starvation.

I think Russia is actually the key in all of this. As long as Russia doesn't care how many die to prop Assad up this will continue unabated. So, likely it all boils down to how long the world will put up with Russia doing this. But let it be understood that the U.S. does not want to go to war with Russia or China. In a nuclear weaponed world this is just a way to end all life on earth. So, a hot war with Russia or China by the U.S. and Europe isn't going to happen.