AKCAKALE, Turkey -- Rebels seized control of
a border crossing on the frontier with Turkey on Wednesday, pulling
down the Syrian flag and sending a stream of jubilant people pouring
across the border into Turkey.
An Associated
Press reporter at the scene Wednesday said people were moving freely
across the Tal Abyad crossing, crawling under barbed wire. Some appeared
to be wounded.
"I am a free Syrian!" one man shouted, throwing his hands in the air.
Syria's
rebels control several other border crossings into Turkey but
Wednesday's capture of the Tal Abyad post is believed to be the first
time they have taken the border area in the northern province of Raqqa.
Taking
control of border crossings helps the opposition ferry supplies into
Syria and carve out an area of control, which is key as the rebels try
to tip the balance in the civil war.
Wednesday's
takeover comes after a day of fierce clashes as rebels and regime
forces fought for control of the Tal Abyad crossing.
Turkey's
private Dogan news agency said earlier Wednesday that the rebels
surrounded the customs building and engaged in an intense fire fight
with Syrian sharp-shooters positioned at the building. Several people
were wounded in the battles and were taken to Turkey for treatment, the
report said.
Civilians escaping the violence reported that several people were killed in fighting around Tal Abyad, Dogan reported.
The
18-month conflict between the regime of President Bashar Assad and his
opponents began with peaceful protests that were attacked by government
security forces, and has since evolved into a civil war. Activists say
at least 23,000 people have died, many of them civilians who fell victim
to the regime onslaught, although rebel factions have also been accused
of summary executions and other abuses.
Also
Wednesday, Amnesty International said the Syrian government has carried
out indiscriminate air bombardments and artillery strikes on residential
areas that do not target opposition fighters or military objectives,
and instead appear aimed solely at punishing civilians seen as
sympathetic to rebel forces.
Much of the
recent fighting has centered on the contested city of Aleppo, but the
London-based group said hundreds of civilians in other parts of northern
and central Syria have been killed or wounded in recent weeks, many of
them children, in attacks that struck people in their homes, in the
street or while trying to take shelter from the bombings.
The
conclusions were published in an Amnesty report that followed a visit
to Syria by senior crisis researcher Donatella Rovera, who traveled to
26 towns and villages in the Jabal al-Zawiya area and other parts of the
northern Idlib and north Hama regions between Aug. 31 and Sept. 11.