Four people have been killed in Turkish-controlled northwestern Syria in clashes between Ankara forces and gunmen protesting against the attacks on Syrians in Turkey, reported the Syrian Center for Monitoring Human Rights, quoted by AFP and BTA.
Hundreds of people have demonstrated in several towns in Turkish-controlled areas, a day after a mob attacked Syrians in the central Turkish city of Kayseri. According to the UK-based NGO, which has a wide network of sources in Syria, "four people were killed in an exchange of gunfire between the demonstrators and the guards stationed in front of the Turkish positions". Three of them died in the city of Afrin, and another in Jarablus, according to the same source, 20 were wounded.
AFP confirms that a correspondent in the town of Azaz saw a protest involving dozens of people, some of whom were waving the flag of the Syrian uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
One of the demonstrators, Adel al-Faraj, told AFP that he was protesting in solidarity "with our Syrian brothers in Turkey" who "have fled Bashar al-Assad to be repressed in Turkey.
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The SNCPC reported protests in other cities as well, where protesters took down the Turkish flag flying on buildings. Turkish border guards also opened fire on demonstrators who tried to storm the Jarablus border crossing.
Syria has been torn apart by war, which erupted in 2011 after a crackdown on pro-democracy protests, and the Turkish army there controls two vast areas after carrying out large-scale operations against Kurdish groups. Turkey announced yesterday that it had detained 67 people, a day after Syrian businesses were attacked in Kayseri, following the arrest of a Syrian man suspected of sexually abusing a child.