Share

Turkish troops kill 11 Syrians trying to cross border – monitoring group

Syrian Observatory Activists said at least eight Syrian refugees, including four children, were shot dead while trying to cross into Turkey.

Advertisement

The official was quoted as saying: “The Commission expressed its concern to the Turkish authorities, as those refugees had initially been selected by the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management on the basis of their vulnerability”.

The country now hosts more than two million Syrian refugees, making it “hardly surprising that many are not getting the support they desperately need to maintain livelihoods”, HRW said.

Turkish border guards shot dead at least 11 Syrians, mostly from one family, as they tried to cross into Turkey from northwestern Syria, activists and a monitoring group said on Sunday.

In April, Amnesty International warned that thousands of Syrian refugees had been illegally returned to their homeland by Turkey since the beginning of the year, exposing “fatal flaws” in a refugee deal signed in March.

It added: “The deaths of defenceless Syrians contradicts the hospitality of the Turkish government and the Turkish people”.

Turkey hosts more than 2 million Syrian refugees. Afterwards, they reportedly fired warning shots in the air and then at the height of the border wall, which some people were trying to climb, forcing them to flee.

The DFS, an alliance of Kurds and Arabs, are meanwhile pressing ahead with an offensive aimed at retaking the northern Syrian town of Minbij from Islamic State.

During Sunday’s operation, 23 DAESH terrorists were killed and three buildings, one defensive position and an anti-tank rocket launcher were destroyed in northern Syria, the sources said. The country has now closed its borders to Syrians.

Manbij is a 98-kilometer (61-mile) strip in Syria along the Turkish border.

Advertisement

Minbij has been under Islamic State control since 2014.

EU countries must resettle one Syrian refugee living in Turkey for every Syrian returned from Greece