REPORT: Russia criticizes U.S. refusal to rule out Syria no-fly zone

                       
Turkish troops fired into Syria after one of its armored vehicles patrolling the border came under fire from unidentified gunmen, the Turkish military said on Thursday.

The troops returned fire after three to five gunmen shot between 15 and 20 rounds at the vehicle patrolling a stretch of the shared border in Turkey's southern Hatay province on Wednesday afternoon, it said.

There were no Turkish troop casualties.

On another note, Syrian rebels pleaded for military and medical aid in the embattled border town of al-Qusayr, saying they were unable to evacuate hundreds of wounded under an onslaught from government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.

"We have 700 people wounded in al-Qusayr and 100 of them are being given oxygen. The town is surrounded and there's no way to bring in medical aid," said Malek Ammar, an opposition activist in the besieged town.

Rebels in al-Qusayr sent out an appeal for support using social media outlets, saying the town near the Syrian-Lebanese border - straddling supply lines critical to both sides in Syria's civil war - could be devastated.


President al-Assad's interview:

Meanwhile, the Syrian president has told Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned TV station al-Manar that Damascus received the first shipment of Russian air defense missiles, according to remarks released by the station.

Al-Manar TV is to air the exclusive interview in full later Thursday.

Bashar Assad's comment on the arrival of the long-range S-300 air defense missiles in Syria could further ratchet up tensions in the region and further undermine efforts to hold U.N.-sponsored talks with Syria's warring sides.

For his part, Israel's defense chief, Moshe Yaalon, said earlier this week that Russia's plan to supply Syria with the weapons is a threat and that Israel was prepared to use force to stop the delivery.

The shipment of the missiles, if confirmed, comes just days after the European Union lifted an arms embargo on Syria, paving way for individual countries of the 27-member bloc to send weapons to rebels fighting to topple Assad's regime.

The developments raise fears of an arms race not just between Assad's forces and the opposition fighters battling to topple his regime, but also in the wider Middle East.


Positions:

This comes as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the opposition Syrian National Coalition of seeking to thwart peace efforts by making President Bashar al-Assad's exit a condition for participating in a proposed international conference.

"One gets the impression that the National Coalition and its regional sponsors are doing everything they can to prevent a political process from starting ... and to achieve military intervention in Syria," Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.

Meanwhile, Israel is looking into reports that Syria had received the first shipment of the advanced Russian air defense system S-300, an Israeli official said.

"I have no information beyond what has been reported, which we are looking into," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, after a Lebanese newspaper quoted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as saying a shipment had arrived.

Israel, which has made veiled threats to prevent S-300 missiles from becoming operational in Syria, has lobbied the Russians against the sale and said on Tuesday that shipments had not yet been made. Israel's airspace would be within range of the system if it is deployed in Syria, a northern neighbor.


AP/LBCI/REUTERS


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