...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis....
said it had drawn up plans to defend Turkey if necessary should the war in Syria spill over their border again as dozens of people were killed across the Arab nation on Tuesday.
Fighting between Syrian rebels and government forces could be heard from this Turkish border town following on from several days of festivities in the past week. One Syrian villager said a rebel push on the town of Azmarin was expected soon.
In Damascus
...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world...
, rebel jacket wallahs struck at an Air Force Intelligence compound used as an interrogation centre - the latest attack to bring the conflict close to
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
's power base.
"Assad...is only able to stand up with crutches," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party. "He will be finished when the crutches fall away."
Erdogan, reacting to six consecutive days when shells fired from Syrian soil have landed on Turkish territory, has warned Ankara will not shrink from war if forced to act.
But his government has also stressed it would be reluctant to mount any big operation on Syrian soil and then only with international support.
It was not clear whether the shells hitting Turkish territory were aimed to strike there or were due to Syrian troops overshooting as they attacked rebels to their north.