Syrian army offensive 'near Turkish border'

The Syrian army launched an offensive early Saturday against rebels in the village of Ain al-Beida, not far from the border with Turkey, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported. It quoted witnesses as saying around 2,000 soldiers and 15 tanks were involved in the operation to seize control of the village only a few kilometres (miles) from Turkey. The army overran the village and set fire to the houses, Anatolia said. The agency said opposition fighters injured in the clashes had been taken to Turkey for treatment. Residents in the Turkish village of Guvecci, just across the border in the southern province of Hatay, told AFP by telephone they had heard automatic gunfire and artillery at dawn. Some 7,500 Syrians have fled to Turkey since the outbreak of anti-regime unrest almost one year ago, on March 15. They are housed in camps in Hatay, where members of the Free Syrian Army, made up of deserters from the Syrian security forces, also are based. Turkey, which shares a 910-kilometre (560-mile) border with Syria, broke its former alliance with Damascus over the regime's brutal crackdown on opposition protesters, which has left more than 7,500 people dead according to the United Nations.