Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Monday the "worst-case scenarios" were taking place in Syria and urged the international community to act, saying Turkey would continue to do everything necessary to protect its borders.
"Our government is in constant consultation with the Turkish military. Whatever needed is being done immediately as you see, and it will continue to be done from now on too," Gul told reporters in the capital Ankara.
This as the Turkish military launched a retaliatory strike on Syria on Monday after a mortar bomb fired from Syrian soil landed in countryside in Turkey's southern province of Hatay, a Turkish state official told Reuters.
It was the sixth consecutive day of Turkish retaliation. The round from Syria landed 150-200 metres within Turkey's border in the district of Hacipasa at about 3 p.m. (1200 GMT), the official said.
Earlier, UN Secretary-General Bank Ki-Moon made
a strong appeal to halt the flow of arms into Syria , warning that the crisis
threatens stability in the entire region.
Ban Ki-moon said that he is
"deeply concerned" about the continued flow of arms to both the
Syrian government and opposition forces, and said a "political
solution" is "the only way out of the crisis."
Speaking at an international
conference on democracy in Strasbourg, the UN chief described as
"extremely dangerous" escalating conflict along the Syrian-Turkish
border and the crisis' impact on Lebanon.
In his speech Monday to the World
Forum for Democracy Ban also said the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar
Brahimi would return to the region this week to continue international efforts
seeking political transition in Syria.
Meanwhile Syria responded to Turkey's backing of veteran Syrian politician Farouq al-Sharaa as Syria's next leader of a transitional government by saying that it is "evidence of political and diplomatic confusion on Turkey's part."
"Farouq al-Sharaa is a man of reason and conscience and he has not taken part in the massacres in Syria,"
Turkey's foreign minister, Ahmet Davoutoglu, said in a weekend TV
interview. "Nobody knows the [Syrian] system better than him."
On the field, pro-regime troops launched a campaign
on areas controlled by opposition fighters in Homs, mainly in the city of
al-Qusayr, according to a Syrian military source and opposition fighters.
On another note, 20 people were killed on Monday
morning in the southern province of Daraa, which has been witnessing military
operations since three days, as shelling and clashes continued in several
districts of Aleppo, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.
For the full LBCI report, watch the VIDEO above.
AP/LBCI