BOYNUYOGUN REFUGEE CAMP, Turkey – Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy machine guns swept into a village near the Turkish border Saturday, forcing more people displaced by the crackdown on anti-government protesters to flee across the frontier.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents protests, said troops backed by six tanks and several armored personnel carriers entered Bdama in the morning. The village, about 12 miles from the Turkish border, had a bakery that was the sole source of bread for nearly 2,000 displaced people crowded near the border who had hoped not to have to flee to the Turkish tent-city sanctuary. The town was also supplying medicine and other foodstuffs to them.
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Without that critical lifeline, some women and children were already crossing into Turkey on Saturday afternoon.
The three-month uprising against President Bashar Assad’s rule has proved stunningly resilient despite a relentless crackdown by the military, pervasive security forces and pro-regime gunmen. Human rights activists say more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as Assad tries to maintain power.
Along the border Saturday, those displaced near Bdama said they were running short of supplies.
“We still have some potatoes, rice and powdered milk but they will run out soon,” said Jamil Saeb, one of the Syrians who had so far decided to stay in Syria. “This is our first day without bread.”
Saeb said there are children who are sick and there is no medicine. Others are picking apples for lack of other food.
“We are living in catastrophic conditions,” he said.
“We are besieged by the border fence from one side and the Syrian army from the other,” Saeb said by telephone. “We are expecting a humanitarian crisis within hours if Turkey does not send aid to us.”
The British Foreign office, meanwhile, urged Britons in Syria to leave the country “immediately.”
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