Syrian army starts crackdown in northern town

Syrian state television says the country’s army has begun operations in Jisr al-Shughur, a restive northern town near the Turkish border.
The government said the operation on Friday aimed to restore security in the town, where authorities said 120 security personnel were killed by “armed groups” last week.
“Our correspondent in Jisr al-Shughur told us now that in response to people’s calls, units from the Syrian Arabic Army started its duties in Jisr al-Shughur … to arrest armed members,” the television report said.
The reporter accompanying the army said troops backed by tanks were on the outer edges of the town, ready to enter.
The military operations are part of a crackdown on an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that started in mid-March.
Reporting from Yayladagi in Turkey, Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught said the military operation had been building for sometime.
“They [State TV] are also saying that armed gangs are burning the fields around Jisr al-Shugur. Whoever is doing it, that will provide a smokescreen for whatever is going to happen inside but there is no question that the crackdown that the Syrian government is planning is going to be immense.
“We have had reports from inside Syria about tanks moving there… some of the villages have nearly emptied of population, people are bracing themselves for some sort of conflict, people have erected barricades where they can there. The Syrian military of course is very well equipped, very well armed, so some kind of showdown is imminent in this area,” she said.
“Reports in the last days of an imminent military operation in the town have prompted an exodus of refugees to nearby Turkey.
More than 2,400 Syrians have fled into the neighbouring country to escape the unrest in Jisr al-Shughur and other towns, according to the UN and Turkish officials.

Refugee numbers increase

Refugees started entering Turkey on April 29, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
But the flow of refugees has increased sharply this week. More than 1,000 people crossed the border in the last 24 hours, the UNHCR said on Thursday.
Speaking from Abu Dhabi, Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said: “We have serious concerns about the situation in Syria.
“Half an hour ago I received exact numbers – more than 2,400 people have now come to Turkey as refugees.”
Most are being housed at a refugee camp in Yayladagi, a town about 10km from the border and 25km from Jisr al-Shughur.
Dozens of white tents have been set up in the camp, and ambulances have been carrying wounded people to hospitals in Antakya, the capital of Turkey’s southern Hatay province.
Metin Corabatir, a spokesman for the UNHCR office in Ankara, the capital, praised the Turkish government’s handling of this newest wave of refugees.
“We have been working closely with the Turkish government, and in general they have been doing a good job providing for the refugees,” Corabatir said.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said on Wednesday that Turkey will not “close its doors” to Syrians fleeing conflict.
Many of the newly-arrived refugees are coming from Jisr al-Shughur, where residents fled fearing a crackdown after the Syrian government vowed to retaliate over the deaths of 120 members of the security forces.
Activists said the security forces were shot by government troops, after they refused to open fire on civilians.
The alleged killings cannot be independently verified.
But Al Jazeera’s McNaught said casualty figures had risen in the area “not only because of battles between protesters and security forces but because of a split within the military itself in Syria where we understand the Mukhabaraat (secret police) wanted to fire at protesters, but certain members of the army were more resistant about doing so, and that may have contributed to the high death toll”.

‘Massive flow’

Newly-arrived refugees in Turkey could describe the conditions in Jisr al-Shughur, but the Turkish government has largely barred journalists from interacting with them.
Police guard the entrance to the camp, and local officials have been instructed not to talk to the media.
Turkish officials say they are preparing for the possibility of more refugees in the coming days; the camp at Yayladagi can hold up to 5,000 people, and a second camp is “under consideration,” according to local media.
“It’s filling up fast, we understand they are building other facilities to take up to 5,000 which is the least they can expect,” McNaught said on Friday.
Video shot near the border shows dozens of Syrians camped out in a field on Syria’s side of the border, apparently trying to position themselves for a quick exodus.
“We have taken all necessary precautions in case of a massive flow of crossings,” Davutoglu said in a Turkish television interview on Wednesday.
Lebanon, Syria’s neighbour to the west, has already absorbed some 5,000 refugees, though the UN says it is a “fluid population” and some of the refugees have already returned home.
The Lebanese government has not released exact statistics on the number of refugees, most of whom receive services from residents of border towns rather than government agencies.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies