Turkey: Syria ‘pointing guns at own people’

SYRIAN tanks and troops swept into two north-western towns near the Turkish border, killing one person and wounding 13 according to activists, as Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of aiming guns at its own people.

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, residents reported heavy gunfire as troops deployed across the provincial capital, making arrests and spraying pro-Assad slogans on buildings.

Erdogan, a former close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said his foreign minister had emphasised when he visited Damascus that the violence must cease.