Over 1,500 Syrians refugees flee to Turkey (Reuters)

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – More than 1,500 Syrian refugees crossed to Turkey on Thursday, according to state-run Anatolian news agency, as the Syrian army swept up to the border in its campaign to stamp out anti-government protests.

The provincial government in Hatay said on Friday morning that the total number of refugees registered at the temporary shelter camps had reached 11,739, compared with 10,224 a day earlier. Most of Thursday's influx came from people who had set up makeshift camps just inside Syrian territory, who fled once the army appeared.

Reuters reporters in Guvecci, a Turkish village at the frontier, said the camps on the other side of the border fence appeared to be completely deserted, and they saw no more refugees crossing on Friday morning.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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More than 1,500 refugees flee Syria in one day (AP)

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press – 14 mins ago

BEIRUT – Turkey's Foreign Ministry says more than 1,500 Syrian refugees have crossed the border to safe havens in Turkey in one day.

The refugees crossed over on Thursday as Syrian troops pushed to the border in their sweep against a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Friday that more than 11,700 Syrians are housed or seeking shelter in Turkish refugee camps.

The Syrian opposition says 1,400 people have been killed in a relentless government crackdown on protests. More demonstrations were planned for Friday after noon prayers.

The European Union announced Thursday it was slapping new sanctions on the Syrian regime and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Damascus to pull its troops back from the Turkish border.

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Syria: In Search of the Rape Victims Among the Refugees (Time.com)

Everybody, it seemed, had heard the stories, and could relay the same horrific details about Syrian soldiers allegedly raping women and girls with cruel impunity. There were ugly accounts, told by many refugees from the northern Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour, some of whom had crossed into nearby Turkey, and by others who remained in a strip of Syrian territory hugging the Turkish border.

Soldiers had abducted several beautiful young women from the town, they said, enslaved them in the sugar refinery, raped them and forced them to remain naked and serve them tea and coffee. There were other, uglier stories of several women reportedly mutilated after being gang-raped by soldiers, their breasts sliced off in a final sadistic act. But few had encountered any of the alleged victims, and fewer still knew their names. (See pictures from the protests in Syria.)

That's hardly surprising. Sexual assault is a difficult subject to raise in any society, but especially so in conservative rural Arab communities - like those of northern Syria - where a family's honor is often tied to the virtue of its women. The mere suggestion of compromised chastity, even if it was stolen, is a shameful stain, one that can make the victim and her entire family outcasts. The refugees on the Syrian side who spoke of these acts said they heard the victims had been taken to a particular Turkish camp. Calls to several camp residents seemed to confirm the claims. They had heard that there were raped women among them.

It's not usually that difficult to get into a refugee camp, but these days, there is nothing about covering the Syria story that is not difficult. Barred from the tightly controlled country, foreign journalists have been forced to rely on telephone calls, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos and stray secondhand testimony in a bid to piece together what has been happening since antigovernment protests first erupted in mid-March.

So when thousands of Syrian refugees started streaming into southern Turkey recently, the opportunity to conduct face-to-face interviews, to hear firsthand testimony and see how it was conveyed was just what we had been waiting for. Turkish authorities, however, have different ideas. They have blocked media from entering the refugee camps in southern Turkey's Hatay province on grounds of protecting the privacy of the more than 9,500 Syrians quartered there. (See pictures of Syrians fleeing into Turkey.)

On June 16, a female Arabic-speaking colleague and I sneaked into the camp, posing as the relatives of a particular male refugee who had been shot. The Turkish guards at the gate bought the story. They knew the young man and his wife we were asking for and called them over to the fence. We were let in. The ruse was just to help us enter. We were hoping to speak with alleged rape victims.

Although the Turks manning the gates left us alone with our "relatives" once we entered, the Syrians were another thing altogether. Perhaps it was because Syria is a society raised on fear, a country where mukhabarat, or secret police, are on every corner, and emotions like paranoia and suspicion can be just as lifesaving as the body's fight-or-flight response. Or perhaps it was because the camps contain mukhabarat posing as refugees. Either way, old suspicions died hard.

At least eight men stood within earshot of us. They weren't the harmless, inquisitive types wondering who the new girls in the camp were. They showed no shame and didn't look away, even when directly asked to. They were like the not-so-secret police all over the Syrian capital Damascus, the men who don't even pretend to be doing anything except standing there, trying to watch and listen to you. After 10 minutes or so, one of the men, who had white hair and a bushy beard, went up to our male "relative" and warned him that he knew the rules: nobody was allowed to speak with anyone, unless this particular gentleman agreed to it. We were going to be searched, he said, to make sure we weren't journalists or spies. That was our cue to leave, and fast. Although we had emptied our bags of notebooks, hotel keys, business cards, passports - anything that may suggest that we were journalists - we had smuggled in small digital recorders and a camera in our clothing. (See "Refugees in the Dark: Fleeing a Devastated Syrian Town.")

We wished our "relatives" well, told them we didn't want to cause them any trouble, and quickly made for the gate - but not before slipping a small Flip video camera into our female "relative's" purse and asking the couple to find the raped or mutilated women. Relatively speaking, it's not a large camp, with just several thousand residents. Still, after days of searching, the Syrians told us they had nothing. Everybody, it seemed, had heard the stories, but nobody knew who the victims were. Not even those in the hospitals of the Turkish city of Antakya, where some 70 wounded Syrians are being treated, could aid our investigations.

I headed back down the difficult, mountainous smuggling route across the Turkish border into Syria. The plum orchard where a week ago I had spent a chilly night with thousands of men, women and children huddled together in makeshift shelters or out in the open was nearly empty. Most of the families had crossed over into Turkey. But those who remained said they knew of a man from the village of al-Serminiyye, a few kilometers away from Jisr al-Shughour, whose four teenage daughters were all raped by Syrian soldiers.

"Yes, it's true, but I don't know the family's name," said Mohammad Merhi, a 30-year-old pharmacist who has become the makeshift clinic's de facto physician, dispensing pills for children with diarrhea and treating gunshot wounds with whatever he can find in the few boxes of medicinal products scattered around his open tent. "You know, we are an Eastern society, we don't speak openly about such things," he said, trying to explain why nobody knew who these girls were.

The strikingly handsome young man was one of four men in this makeshift camp who had offered to marry the teenage rape victims, even though they had never met any of them. In this traditional culture of shame where virginity is prized, rape victims cannot easily (if ever) marry. The 32-year-old Bassam al-Masry, whose younger brother Basil was shot dead by security forces in Jisr al-Shughour on June 3 (his funeral the following day reportedly ended in a massacre by security forces), was another of the young men who had heard the story. "I hope that I will have the honor of marrying one of these girls," he said, as Merhi treated an almost healed gunshot wound in al-Masry's upper right thigh. "I know that these girls suffered, they were taken against their will. I don't care what they look like, the point is to stand by them, and I do with all of my heart."

The family was likely in another informal encampment of refugees, several kilometers away from this one, the young men said. And so, we trekked over there. But there too, nobody, it seemed, knew the family.

"We are all hearing the stories of rape," said one woman, Em Mustafa, a 34-year-old from the Syrian border village of Khirbet al-Jouz, who despite the fact that her home was just a few kilometers away, was staying in a tent closer to the Turkish border. Hundreds of residents of Khirbet al-Jouz were doing the same, abandoning their homes and sleeping out in the fields, for fear that the Syrian army might sweep through their town at night. "Most of all, we fear rape," the mother of three young daughters, all under 10, said. "We have heard a lot of stories."

Everybody, it seemed, had heard the stories, but nobody knew any victims. Separating fact from fiction is only one hurdle to telling the Syria story. Overcoming the people's fears, suspicions and feelings of shame is perhaps an even bigger obstacle.

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Syrian forces prevent refugees fleeing to Turkey (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian forces swept through a northwestern border region Sunday to stem an exodus of refugees to Turkey that is raising international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and a rights activist said.

Syrian human rights campaigner Ammar al-Qurabi also accused pro-government forces of attacking people who were helping the refugees as they tried to escape from a widening military assault to crush protests against Assad's autocratic rule.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross was due in Damascus Sunday to discuss expanding its relief effort with Syrian officials.

The latest assault followed the biggest protests across Syria Friday in four months of anti-Assad unrest, despite his clampdown on public dissent. Security forces shot dead up to 19 protesters Friday, rights campaigners said.

Assad will make a speech Monday about "current circumstances," the state news agency said, his first speech since April 16 and only his third since the start of the violence.

Authorities blame the violence on armed groups and Islamists, backed by foreign powers. Syria has barred most international journalists, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.

Qurabi said troops and gunmen loyal to Assad had blocked roads leading to the Turkish frontier in the rich arable region of Jisr al-Shughour, leaving thousands stranded.

"The Syrian army has spread around the border area to prevent frightened residents from fleeing across the border to Turkey," he told Reuters.

People trying to help had come under attack around the small town of Bdama near the Turkish border which Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to Assad stormed Saturday, burning houses and arresting dozens, witnesses said.

"Militiamen close to the regime are attacking people in Bdama and the surrounding areas who are trying to deliver relief and food to thousands of refugees stuck along the border and trying to flee," said Qurabi.

Qurabi's comments could not be independently confirmed, but a local resident backed up his account.

"There are roadblocks everywhere in Bdama to prevent people from fleeing but villagers are finding other routes through valleys to escape to the Turkish border," said Omar, a farmer from Bdama who managed to reach the border area.

Witnesses said pro-Assad forces were firing randomly, ransacking houses and burning crops in Jisr al-Shughour, an area known for its apple groves, olive trees and wheat.

"We received no bread today. There was one bakery operating in Bdama but it has been forced to shut. The 'shabbiha' (Assad's gunmen) are shooting randomly," one refugee, a carpenter who gave his name as Hammoud, told Reuters by telephone.

"One man in Bdama was injured today and we managed to smuggle him to hospital in Turkey. But many fear getting shot if they attempt to cross the border," the refugee added.

Bdama is one of the nerve centers providing food and supplies to several thousand other Syrians who have escaped the violence from frontier villages but chose to take shelter in fields on the Syrian side of the boundary.

TURKISH STRAINS

The number of refugees who have crossed into Turkey from Syria has reached 10,114, and another 10,000 are sheltering by the border just inside Syria, according to Turkish officials.

Sunni Muslim Turkey, seeking to restore its regional role, has improved its ties with Assad, who belongs to Syria's minority Alawite sect, and backed his drive to seek peace with Israel and improve relations with the United States.

But the mass killings of Syrian Sunnis have made Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan increasingly critical of Assad.

Erdogan has warned Syria against repeating a brutal campaign of repression in the 1980s that killed thousands. He has also sent his foreign minister and the head of Turkey's land forces to tour the border refugee region in the last several days.

The International Federation for Human Rights and the U.S.-based Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said in a statement they had verified from local sources that Syrian forces had killed more than 130 people and arrested over 2,000 in Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages in the last few days.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), will arrive in Damascus Sunday for talks with Syrian officials on expanding its relief effort in the country, the aid agency said.

The two days of talks follow an appeal by the independent aid agency last week for greater access to the civilian population, including people who have been wounded or detained.

Syrian rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people detained since March.

The Syrian Observatory for human rights has said more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed. Other rights campaigners said tens of security personnel had been killed by loyalist troops for refusing to shoot at unarmed civilians.

Assad has increasingly been using the military to crush protests in areas that have been agitated by the killings. Central neighborhoods in the more mixed cities of Damascus and Aleppo, where security is intense, have not seen large protests.

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, where tens of thousands marched Saturday in the funeral of two protesters killed on Friday, activists prepared for another big rally as large army garrisons were deployed around the city's main entrances.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; editing by David Stamp and Jan Harvey)

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Jolie visits Syrian refugees in Turkey

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie met with Syrian refugees in Turkey on Friday and drew attention to the anguish faced by families -- and families torn apart -- by the violence in Syria.

More than 9,600 refugees are living in four camps managed by Turkey and the Turkish Red Crescent, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, visited the Altinozu camp in Turkey's Hatay province, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Syrian border, the UNHCR said.

"The people in this camp have fled in fear for their lives, and many told me they were distraught about the safety of loved ones still in Syria," Jolie said, according to the refugee agency.

Jolie met with one woman whose husband was killed. The woman fled to Syria late in her pregnancy and gave birth at the camp, the UNHCR said. Another woman told Jolie about her husband who was too afraid to cross the border.

A wave of Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Refugees at Altinozu are housed in warehouses at an old tobacco factory, and they staged a demonstration at the camp in solidarity with the many anti-government demonstrations occurring across the border in Syria.

They held up signs that said, "Our military is killing its own people, please make it stop" and "U.N., help us please." People chanted, "stop killing children" and other anti-regime slogans.

The people in this camp have fled in fear for their lives, and many told me they were distraught about the safety of loved ones still in Syria.
--Angelina Jolie

"I appreciate the opportunity to visit this camp and talk to these families," Jolie said, according to the UNHCR. "It is a really complex situation and everyone needs to be doing all they can for the innocent families caught in the crossfire. I will be following this situation very closely and doing everything I can."

She also praised the Turkish government and the Turkish Red Crescent for their "tremendous generosity" to the refugees.

"The Red Crescent has set up camps really quickly and provided medical and other care. And UNHCR stands ready to assist if the situation starts to escalate," Jolie said, according to the U.N. office.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR in 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.'"

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Arwa Damon and Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Jolie in Turkey to meet Syrian refugees

Angelina Jolie is a U.N. goodwill ambassadorThe actress, and a load of toys, made their way to a refugee campThe number of Syrian refugees in Turkey is approaching 10,000

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, arrived in southern Turkey on Friday to visit Syrian refugees, a high-profile trip focusing attention on misery faced by ordinary citizens who have escaped violence in turbulent Syria.

Jolie, who is scheduled to visit the Altinozu refugee camp, arrived at the airport in Hatay and was greeted by officials, according to the state-run Anatolian Agency.

Hatay provincial officials had vans for the trip to Altinozu, and "toys unloaded from the plane were loaded to one of the vans in her convoy," the agency reported.

More than 9,600 Syrian men, women, and children have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Refugees at Altinozu are housed in warehouses at an old tobacco factory, and they staged a demonstration at the camp in solidarity with the many anti-government demonstrations occurring across the border in Syria.

They held up signs that said "Our military is killing its own people, please make it stop," "U.N., help us please" and people chanted "stop killing children" and other anti-regime slogans.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.'"

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Arwa Damon and Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Angelina Jolie to visit Syrian refugees

Actress Angelina Jolie is a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency.Jolie will arrive in Istanbul and head to HatayMore than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for TurkeyJolie is a U.N. refugee agency goodwill ambassador

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, will be headed to Turkey this week to visit Syrian refugees, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.

More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Just inside Syria, refugees from embattled town huddle in makeshift camp (The Christian Science Monitor)

Khirbet al-Jouz, Syria – Syrian tanks and military hardware continued their advance across northwestern Syria on Tuesday, pushing more refugees into Turkey – and more into a bleak makeshift camp just inside Syria.

Heavy rain poured overnight on the hundreds of Syrians huddled under plastic sheeting strung up between green plum trees, their mud-caked shoes set carefully at the edge of sodden blankets.

As the clouds break, one man stands beside a 10-year-old girl in a pink jacket, Sanaa.

a€?My daughter, she went out in a demonstration and just because she said the word freedom, she has given herself a death sentence,a€

His two sons are in Lebanon and can’t return, because their identity cards list their place of birth: the contested town of Jisr al-Shughur. If they show them at the border, the father says, “right away they would be detained, dead.”

RECOMMENDED: 'Syrian Army deserter: We were ordered to shoot on the people'

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appear to be brutally asserting control over rebellious regions, even as pressure mounts on Syria to stop the carnage.

Today, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lectured the Syrian leader in a phone call to begin reforms.

'Is this acceptable to anybody in this world?'In this encampment, a haphazard patchwork of blue and white tarpaulins in the shadow of a towering Turkish border post, there are more questions than answers.

“Why is our president killing us? [Why] is he bringing us to this war?” asks an English literature graduate who uses the pseudonym Nour.

Jammed into a minivan with more than a dozen other women and children, the 22-year-old woman, pregnant and wearing a head scarf, gives voice to the anger and fear that many Syrians today reserve only for their dictator.

Nour’s hands shake when she speaks. She knows of killings in her city of Latakia – including a lawyer gunned down as he went to visit his sister.

“I know that God created human beings to live in this world in a liberal way,” says Nour. “Why does only one man want to control all these people in Syria? More [than] 20 million people. Why?”

“Our president kills us … and forces us to leave our country and live in camps. Is it acceptable according to anybody in this world?” she adds.

Following the smugglers' routeThis patch of northwest Syria has become the focal point of the 12-week rebellion against Mr. Assad and his family’s 40-year rule in Syria.

But little has been heard from the Syrians most affected. Turkish authorities are physically preventing outsiders from speaking with Syrians who are crossing the border at a rate of more than 1,000 each day.

To circumvent those restrictions, a few Western journalists have followed steep smuggler trails past the Turkish military. Through a gap in a fence, they cross into Syria and follow another set of trails – strewn in places with debris from departing refugees – to get to this camp.

Turkish soldiers at one point shouted orders at this correspondent’s group to stop on Tuesday, but were too far away to stop them from running away.

Half a dozen Syrian and Turkish men carrying fresh loaves of bread and new tarps from Turkey were already being stopped and forced to the ground by those soldiers – a common occurrence, the refugees say, during the daily flow of aid.

Waiting for familyThe hundreds at this place are among thousands who are believed to have left their homes but reluctant to cross into Turkey. They are waiting for more family, want to keep an eye on homes and livestock, or don’t want to get trapped in Turkey’s well-made but isolated refugee camps.

So life has ground on for those choosing to be just a few steps from safety. Drinking water is drawn from a well – or gathered from rain in buckets – though dishes are washed and bowels emptied beside a single stream.

In one steaming canvas tent that grows hot when rain gives way to fierce afternoon sun, a pharmacist from Jisr al-Shughur has arranged most of the wares from his shop.

It is an impressive array, supplemented with two sets of donations from Turkey, but not enough. A child screams as Mohammed Meeri gives him a shot for a stomach problem.

The pharmacist admits that anything he provides is a stop-gap only, little more than “psychological medicine.”

'A place I don't even want to call my homeland'No one is ready to stay in this camp for long, where vehicles and tractors and wagons have all been doubling as shelter. One woman brings a broad tray of food for a circle of men; in her wagon, a cluster of kids cavort behind canvas.

Abu Saef, who carries a rifle to kill wild animals on his farm, laments "a rapist, murdering regime that believes it is the only ruler."

“More people are going to come, but if the Army comes, we’ve got God and Turkey only,” he says.

That won’t happen, thanks to the proximity of the Turkish military, which patrols the border road adjacent to the camp, on the other side of a low line of trees and foliage. Turkish soldiers on Tuesday looked into the encampment from the high turrets of their armored personnel carriers, which stopped from time to time.

“I don’t think the military will come this close to the border in tanks, but will use their vehicles to clear all villages,” says Musa, who returned 10 days ago from a construction job in Lebanon to his home town of Jisr al-Shughur, 12 miles away.

He watched the military advance, “creeping through the fields” three days ago to reclaim control of the town. Today, his shoes are soiled with mud and his right wrist scratched.

“I regret ever coming back to a place I don’t even want to call my homeland,” says Musa.

One man who asked not to be named used to go to demonstrations, then had to flee.

“The security in the area – they're not used to demonstrations,” he says. “They don't fire tear gas, they fire live bullets. That's all they have and know.”

Those who took part were deliberately targeted, says the 30-year-old. Agents watched from street corners and filmed the demonstrations.

A common refrain in the camp is that President Assad behaves as if he were a god, to be worshiped. And obedience alone is prized.

“When the Syrian Army says the people of one town are asking for ‘security,’ you can be sure it will be finished,” says one refugee from Jisr al-Shughur called Mohammed, his white baseball cap out of place in this frontier orchard.

“We didn’t love him, and we want him to go,” says Mohammed. “He stays for 40 years, he and his father. We want change now. And we will stay here for 40 years more, until he goes. Maybe he will make his son president in the future – it’s a bad dream for us.”

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Desperately Fleeing Syria: Refugees Cross into Turkey (Time.com)

The young Syrian in the white undershirt cradled a toddler in his arms as he sat beneath a line of laundry strung up between two stout gum trees. He stared out from behind the rusty metal gate of the disused tobacco warehouse that is now home to hundreds of Syrian refugees, most of whom are from the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughour, some 40 kilometers south of the Turkish border. A gaggle of frustrated journalists waited across the narrow street from the warehouse grounds, prevented from speaking to the refugees by uniformed Turkish police officers as well as plainclothes security officials who briskly brushed away anyone who approached the gate.

"I'm from Jisr al-Shughour," the Syrian man shouted in response to a question I yelled out in Arabic from across the street. "We came yesterday, we're seven families," he screamed, gesturing to the half a dozen young children playing around him amid the rows of neatly arranged white tents now covering the grounds of the old factory. "It's war, they're shelling civilians," he bellowed as a woman balancing a mattress on her head walked past him toward a tent, and a plainclothes Turkish security official in a green-and-white striped shirt hurriedly approached him. The official stood over the refugee for a few moments before leaving. "Tell me what you saw in your village and along the road to Turkey," I screamed, cupping my hands over my mouth in a bid to carry my voice further. The refugee didn't answer. Instead, he held his hand up to his mouth and shook his head, in a gesture that meant he could no longer speak. "Did they prevent you from talking to me?" I asked. He nodded his head. (Chaos in Syria: Are Army Deserters Helping to Arm the Opposition?)

"I'm just an employee, I'm doing my job," a plainclothes officer later told TIME. "The government says you can't talk to them. We have orders."

More than 2,790 Syrians have streamed across the border into the southern Turkish province of Hatay, the state Anatolia News Agency reported Friday. The government has established two camps, one in Yayladagi, the other in Altinozou, and is planning a third, the agency said. The Turks clearly expect a mass exodus in the coming days and weeks. The Hurriyet daily reported on Friday that the government may establish a buffer zone in the southern border area "if hundreds of thousands [of Syrians] want to seek refuge in Turkey."

That may happen sooner rather than later, given that Syrian state media announced on Friday that an anticipated military offensive had begun in Jisr al-Shughour, a restive Sunni town of some 50,000, "in response to the inhabitants'... call for help." Damascus says "armed gangs" in the area killed more than 120 security personnel last week, a claim vociferously denied by Syrian rights activists who say the killings were due to mutinous units of the military who, rather than shoot unarmed protesters, turned their weapons on their colleagues.

Abu Fady, a resident of Khirbet al-Jouz, not far from Jisr al-Shughour, reached by phone Friday said food supplies were low and that hundreds of people were leaving the village, heading for the Turkish border. "People are scared," he said. "and we should be scared of this regime." Abu Fady said there were hundreds of military vehicles amassed on the Syrian side of the Turkish border, to intimidate or prevent people from crossing. "This is intolerable," he said. "I want to get my family out of here tonight."

France and Britain are rallying support at the United Nations Security Council for a resolution against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, while once-staunch allies of Damascus like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have distanced themselves from the Syrian leader. Erdogan has steadily upped the tempo of his criticism. The images from Syria were "unpalatable," Erdogan told Turkey's ATV television on Thursday night. "They are acting in an inhumane way," he said, referring to the Syrian regime and suggesting that Turkey could support any U.N. move against Assad. "In the face of violence, we cannot continue to support Syria. We have relatives living in Syria," he said. (See why the West won't intervene in Syria.)

There are, in fact, blood ties that bind residents of the Turkish-Syrian border, many of whom on the Turkish side are ethnic Arabs. "Hassan," an 18-year-old Syrian, who said he was from Khirbet al-Jouz, sat along the low concrete wall of a flat-roofed home in the sleepy Turkish hamlet of Guvecci, about 20 minutes drive from the Yayladagi camp. He was red-faced as he squinted into the mid-morning sun, beads of sweat clung above his blonde brows. The young man said he'd walked across the border half an hour ago, to find his Turkish relative Abu Omar, who would help him buy bread. "I just came to get bread and to return," Hassan said. "In our town, there's no food, no bread. When we see the army, we hide, they're shooting at people." Hassan refused to present his national Syrian ID card, saying he feared the consequences of divulging his identity, despite a pledge from me that he would remain anonymous. It's unclear how he managed to evade the Turkish soldiers spread out in the lush fields between the village, which hugs a gently sloping hill, and a paved road in the valley that demarcates the Syrian border.

A hilltop Turkish military outpost sits adjacent to Guvecci's handful of houses. On Friday, a military truck could be seen loading Syrians gathered at the border road, as vehicles, mainly ambulances, continued to stream across the hill from Syria into Turkey. The military kept the media at a distance.

Aisha Gur, sat under a leafy grapevine in the small courtyard of her home in Guvecci. The 45-year-old's modest abode was one of the closest dwellings to the border road, which could be accessed from a steep, sloping village pathway covered in loose stones and animal dung that passed alongside Gur's home. A small flock of sheep meandered along the track, toward an olive grove near flowering orange pomegranate trees. "Look, see that ambulance." Gur said, pointing out toward the road. "We've seen lots of ambulances coming from Syria lately," she said, "but none of us are allowed to speak with the people in them."

The refugees picked up from the informal border post at Guvecci were destined for one of the two nearby camps. As the hours passed, several mini-vans full of tired-looking Syrians disgorged their passengers inside the grounds of the Yayladagi camp. A man inside the fenced tent city limped past on a single crutch, his right foot bandaged. He said he was from Jisr al-Shughour, had been shot by Syrian security forces, and had crossed the border overnight. "The shabihha and security have surrounded us," he said referring to armed gangs of Assad loyalists. It was clear that the man desperately wanted to speak, but a uniformed Turkish policeman was quickly heading toward him. He sighed as he watched him approach. "I can't speak to you," he said. "I want to, but I can't."

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Fleeing violence, Syrian refugees warn of potential massacre (The Christian Science Monitor)

Guvecci, Turkey – Syrian refugees continued to stream into Turkey Thursday, fleeing an expected revenge attack from the regime against their town of Jisr al-Shughur.

Even as Syrian forces began encircling the northwest town, Turkey said its border is open to those trying to escape the violence. By dusk Thursday, 2,400 Syrians had crossed into Turkey at this and another illegal crossing nearby.

"They are killing people, I saw that with my own eyes," says one refugee who gave his name as Abu Ali, a young man in sandals and a T-shirt from Jisr al-Shughur who crossed several times in recent weeks.

Of all the revolutions sweeping through the Middle East, none create a starker dilemma for Turkey than the one tearing apart its ally Syria. So while it is responding to the humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees, it is also going to great lengths to shield Syria from further international criticism.

RECOMMENDED: Syria 101: 4 attributes of Syria's authoritarian regime

Turkish police and local authorities have been ordered to prevent the refugees from telling of their experiences in a city where fighting in the past week caused the death of 120 Syrian security and policemen, according to Syrian authorities.

A closed-circuit camera has been set up along one side of a long fence around the main refugee camp in the town of Yayladagi. Police whistle and wave off journalists who approach the fence; forbidden also are hospitals, where some 35 Syrians are recovering from bullet and shrapnel wounds.

The Turkish regional governor made a visit, passing along the rolling hills, wheat fields, and olive groves of the border line – and its unofficial crossing points – in a convoy of more than 10 vehicles. He eventually stopped at the refugee camp, some miles away, but then roared past waiting journalists – blue and red lights flashing – without making a comment.

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The situation could not be more different than the openness displayed by Turkey regarding Iranian refugees in 2009, and even wounded Libyan refugees brought to Turkey for urgent medical treatment, when some journalists were escorted into their presence in government limousines.

Why Syria is differentFor years, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worked to strengthen ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government is now being vilified across the globe for a vicious crackdown that rights activists say have claimed 1,300 lives.

The two leaders refer to each other as "brother," and speak regularly on the phone – most recently on Wednesday. But Syria's dictatorship bears little resemblance to Turkey's democratic system, which sees another test during a general election next Sunday.

Turkey has sought to present itself as a democratic role model across the region a€“ one that takes the side of people power and justice every time. But the contradictions of that policy await the Syrian refugees as they cross the border.

The Syrians who have fled have much to say, and appear eager to do so if not identified.

Abu Ali, who has avoided the refugee camp, says two of his relatives were wounded in protests in the town but disappeared after they went to the hospital. Grim stories are on his mind, creating a profound fear shared by many refugees.

"The military is moving in to kill the people; they are there to intimidate the people – otherwise we wouldn't run away. It has turned into a blood feud, so it is very deep," he says. "Until Assad goes, it will only get worse. They are pressing and torturing the people, because they fear Assad will lose his power."

And if that happens, Turkey is likely to lose some face.

Faint advice from TurkeyMr. Erdogan stated Wednesday that Turkey would "keep our doors open to all Syrians seeking refuge," while Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey had "serious concerns about the situation in Syria." Syria must act "more decisively" on political reforms long-promised by Assad, Mr. Davutoglu added.

But that was faint advice from a nation that has increasingly thrown around its diplomatic weight in recent years, a NATO ally that has become a regional player that has taken on Israel and become closer to Iran.

Turkey's promising diplomatic future appears at risk just 12 miles across the border, where Jisr al-Shughur braces for a new level of retaliation from the regime. Syrian government forces are encircling the town to exact "decisive" revenge for the death of 120 security and police forces during what Damascus called an "ambush" by armed gangs.

Eyewitnesses quoted by wire agencies spoke of a military column of 60 transporters with tanks and armored vehicles, and 10 trucks loaded with soldiers, departed from the city of Aleppo and headed toward Jisr al-Shughur.

Syrian officials have vowed to strike "decisively" against the town. The pro-Assad newspaper Al-Watan reported that the military was now ready to launch an offensive in the province that would last for days. An Associated Press description said the report claimed the military would be battling 2,000 armed gunmen.

Residents were fleeing the area "to give the Syrian army a chance to enter all areas and confront the gunmen."

UN criticizes Syria's actionsSuch threats are coming against a background of rising international pressure on Syria.

"We are receiving an increasing number of alarming reports pointing to the Syrian government's continuing efforts to ruthlessly crush civilian protests," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, today. "It is utterly deplorable for any government to attempt to bludgeon its population into submission, using tanks, artillery and snipers."

The problem for Turkey's government is clear in the fine words used to create this alliance in the past.

At a joint press conference in late 2009 in Damascus, for example, Erdogan said: "Syria is our gate to the Middle East, and it is our second home as Turkey is the second home for the Syrians and Syria's gate to Europe."

Assad claimed that the 51 bilateral agreements signed at the meeting would redraw the map of the Middle East, and the two nations had "become ... an example to be followed of brotherly ties between the two people's and countries."

Assad hailed the "strong and common will that we have possessed [to make] joint future."

Praising Erdogan, Assad was speaking for both leaders when he said "whoever respects himself and his homeland gains the support of his people ... and he who uses his cards above the table, not under that table ... gains the respect of the world."

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Syrian refugees cross into Turkey

Guvecci, Turkey (CNN) -- About 100 Syrian refugees clustered Wednesday, chanting and holding a Syrian flag, next to a border fence with Turkey, watched closely by several Turkish soldiers pacing in front of them.

During the course of the day, more than 400 others crossed into Turkish territory near the village of Karbeyaz, even though this is not an official border gate, the semi-official Anatolia news agency said.

They were housed in a tent city near Yayladagi, along the border, where nearly 700 people were sheltered in 100 tents, the agency said.

Many of the refugees are from the Syrian border town of Jisr Al-Shugur, from which they say tens of thousands of residents have fled over the past week after scores of people were killed in fighting.

The Syrian government said more than 80 security forces were killed in an ambush by "armed groups" in Jisr Al-Shugur. But residents of the town say those people died after fighting broke out among Syrian soldiers, some of whom mutinied after Syrian troops fired on anti-government demonstrators at the funeral of a slain protester.

"My friend was shot next to me when we were at a funeral for a martyr," said one Syrian refugee, speaking by telephone to CNN from a stand of trees on the Syrian side of the hilly border area. "There is no milk for children, no water" in Jisr Al-Shugur, he said. "They poisoned the water and there is no more bread."

The refugee, who asked not to be identified, said he did not plan to flee into Turkey unless Syrian troops threatened him and his family at this makeshift frontier haven.

Activist Fadi Mustafa Soufi, speaking via Skype with CNN from the cluster of refugees along the frontier, said shortly after noon that two women wounded in fighting in Jisr Al-Shugur had arrived in a vehicle. "One woman was shot in the face, but she's not dead yet," Soufi said.

Several dozen soldiers who had defected and changed into civilian clothes were among the refugees, Soufi said.

On Tuesday night, a refugee woman named Um Ahmed told CNN she had fled to the border with her daughters to escape what she expected would be a Syrian government attack on Jisr Al-Shugur.

A growing number of Syrian refugees have fled to Turkey over the past month and a half, raising the possibility of a refugee exodus.

In late April, about 250 Syrian civilians fled across the border to the Turkish village of Guvecci. There, they have been housed in tents and fed by the Turkish Red Crescent at an old tobacco factory. Turkish authorities have denied journalists permission to speak with the refugees and have refused to allow the refugees to leave the compound.

Turkish officials speaking on condition of anonymity told CNN that 41 Syrians -- several of them wounded -- crossed the border Saturday.

A doctor, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN that more than 30 Syrians with gunshot and shrapnel wounds had been treated at a hospital in Turkey in recent days.

Meanwhile, Soufi, the activist from Jisr Al-Shugur, said he saw the bodies of two wounded Syrian men who died while being driven to the Turkish border.

In the past, the Turkish government has made a show of evacuating wounded civilians from Iraq and Libya. But Ankara has taken a different approach with dozens of wounded civilians fleeing Syria.

Turkey fears a repeat of the 1991 exodus of large numbers of Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq. Ankara has also spent the past decade promoting cozy relations and lucrative economic ties with Syria's 45-year-old president, Bashar al-Assad.

The United Nations reports more than 1,000 people have been killed during anti-regime protests in Syria in less than three months. Over the past month, the government of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun calling for reform in Damascus in a bid to curb the escalating violence.

"It is out of (the) question that we close the border at this point. The developments in Syria are saddening. We are watching in worry," Erdogan said Wednesday.

"We hope that Syria changes its attitude towards the civilians to a more tolerant one and realizes its steps for reform in a more convincing way for the civilians."

Erdogan has been furiously campaigning ahead of Turkish parliamentary elections scheduled to take place on June 12.

CNN's Ivan Watson, Yesim Comert and journalist Rasha Qass Yousef contributed to this report.

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Australia criticised over child refugees plan (AFP)

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australia's plan to include children among 800 asylum seekers to be sent to Malaysia to have their refugee claims assessed was attacked by critics who said it may breach their human rights.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has confirmed that unaccompanied minors will be included in a plan to send 800 boatpeople to Malaysia for processing.

In exchange, Australia will accept some 4,000 registered refugees from the Southeast Asian nation.

"I don't want unaccompanied minors, I don't want children getting on boats to come to Australia thinking or knowing that there is some sort of exemption in place," Bowen told ABC TV late Thursday.

Australia has already been criticised for the yet-to-be finalised scheme because Malaysia is not a signatory to the UN refugee convention, and following claims that asylum seekers sent to Malaysia could be caned.

Refugee advocates described the decision to include those aged under 18 in the "swap" as disappointing and potentially a breach of their human rights.

"Under Australian law the (immigration) minister is personally responsible as guardian for the welfare of unaccompanied children," David Manne, from the Melbourne-based Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre, told AFP.

"These children are here now, the minister has a legal responsibility to act in their best interests," he said.

"And it's difficult to see how it could be best for these children to be expelled from Australia to a country that has such a consistently poor record in the treatment of refugees, including children."

Ian Rintoul, from the Refugees Action Coalition, said the issue highlighted the problems inherent in sending boatpeople offshore for processing.

"I think it shows the human rights tragedy of trying to trade off the rights of one group against another group," he told AFP.

Amnesty International and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Australia also called on the government to reconsider the decision, saying Canberra would be placing young people in a vulnerable situation.

"To send children to a country where there are no guarantees of access to an education, health care and welfare is seemingly a breach of our legal obligations, as well as lacking care and compassion," UNICEF Australia chief executive Norman Gillespie said in a statement.

The government said while it had been a difficult decision it would prevent children risking their lives making the perilous boat journey to Australia, adding that the human rights of all asylum seekers would be respected.

Defending his decision, Bowen said he never wanted Australia to again have to bury children as a result of a boat accident, as happened in December when a wooden vessel carrying about 90 asylum seekers sank at Christmas Island.

That vessel disintegrated after smashing into cliffs in rough seas, throwing all onboard in the water and claiming almost 50 lives, including those of children and babies.

Bowen said the deal with Malaysia would reflect a commitment to all asylum seekers being treated with dignity and respect.

The number of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat topped 6,800 in 2010 and so far some 1,437 passengers have arrived on illegal boats this year.

Canberra's plan to halt the arrivals by sending the asylum seekers offshore has been compared by media here to the previous government's "Pacific Solution" under which boatpeople were held on the tiny state of Nauru and Manus island in Papua New Guinea while their claims were assessed.

That policy was branded "inhumane" by human rights groups before it was repealed by Prime Minister Julia Gillard's centre-left Labor Party in 2007.

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Palestinian refugees call for third intifada during deadly clashes at Israel-Lebanon border (The Christian Science Monitor)

Maroun er Ras, Lebanon – At least six people were killed and scores wounded Sunday when Israeli troops opened fire on a massive crowd of Palestinian refugees who gathered on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel to demand a return to the homes they were forced to leave 63 years ago.

Another four Palestinians were reportedly killed when they infiltrated the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria during another demonstration to mark the anniversary of the "nakba," or "catastrophe," as many Palestinians call the day Israel was founded in 1948.

Security on both sides of the Lebanon-Israel border was tight as an estimated 50,000 Palestinians were bussed from refugee camps all over Lebanon to the tiny hill village of Maroun er Ras which overlooks the border with Israel.

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The huge turnout defied the expectations of the organizers, who had predicted some 20,000, and spurred calls for a peaceful “third intifada.” But it is too soon to tell whether a fresh mass uprising will gain traction.

“This is a peaceful message to Israel and the world, God willing, this will be the beginning of a peaceful third intifada,” says Mahmoud Zeidan, a Palestinian organizer from the Ain al-Hilweh camp in the southern Lebanese town of Sidon.

With the narrow winding road leading to Maroun er Ras blocked by parked buses, entire families – from toddlers to stooped and wrinkled old men – began climbing the steep northern slopes of the hill to reach the village. Colorfully dressed Palestinians steadily walked up the verdant flower-speckled hillside in narrow winding columns, red, green and black Palestinian flags fluttering in the spring breeze.

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The atmosphere on the climb up the hill to Maroun er Ras and the view of the border was cheerful and friendly, almost like a picnic outing. But on the southern side of the hill overlooking the border, the situation quickly grew tense.

Hundreds of Palestinians scrambled down the rocky slope to reach the frontier fence. A crowd of some 300 to 400 reached the fence itself and began hurling stones at Israeli soldiers.

Lebanese soldiers belatedly attempted to stop the numbers growing at the fence and formed a line across a dirt track about 400 yards from the border. Short bursts of machine gun fire and individual rifle shots broke out as Israeli soldiers shot at the crowd.

Casualties were stretchered from the border to a handful of ambulances parked nearby. As the casualties increased, dozens more ambulances began to arrive on the scene. The silhouettes of Israeli troops could be spotted on the ramparts of a border outpost watching the scene.

Inside the outpost, a tank revved its engines and emitted a thick cloud of smoke, partly obscuring the position.

Checked by the thin line of Lebanese soldiers, Palestinian tempers raged as the young men attempted to push through to reach the border. A group of supporters of the Islamic Jihad militant group chanted “God is greater” and “We will liberate Palestine with the Kalashnikov.”

Every few minutes, the surging crowd of Palestinians gained sufficient momentum to push past the angry Lebanese soldiers, cheering and whooping as they dashed toward the border fence to join their comrades.

The scattered machine-gun fire and casualties did little to deter the Palestinian demonstrators. If anything, each fusillade appeared to galvanize them further.

“The Israeli shooting against peaceful demonstrators on our southern border is a blatant, intolerable aggression and we call on the international community and UNIFIL to hold Israel accountable for the crime,” said Saad Hariri, the Lebanese caretaker prime minister. UNIFIL is the term for the UN peacekeeping force deployed in south Lebanon.

By early evening, the Shiite militant group, Hezbollah, had placed its cadres on full alert.

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More African refugees arrive in Italy

Refugees from Libya wait after disembarking from a boat onto the Italian island of Lampedusa on April 19, 2011.One ship was from Libya and the other was from TunisiaPeople have been making the journey since FebruaryLampedusa and Malta have borne the brunt of refugee flight

Lampedusa, Italy (CNN) -- More than 400 people fleeing Libya and Tunisia arrived overnight in an Italian island on Saturday, the latest in a stream of refugees escaping volatile and unstable North Africa.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said the people reached the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in two boats, one from Libya and the other from Tunisia.

The vessel from Libya carried 199 people fleeing the country's civil war, and the other carried 218 Tunisians looking for better lives in Europe.

Five boats containing 1,271 passengers reached Lampedusa on Friday.

Many of the refugees are from sub-Saharan Africa, including Sierra Leone and Senegal. Others include Bangladeshis and Egyptians.

More than 30,000 migrants and refugees from Tunisia and Libya have risked this dangerous journey to Lampedusa since last February.

Lampedusa and Malta, both islands less than an hour's flight from the North African coast, have borne the brunt of the subsequent wave of migration.

At one point, the population of migrants vastly outnumbered the tiny population of Lampedusa, which numbers less than 6,000.

The number of new arrivals from Tunisia has reduced somewhat, thanks in part to a recent agreement with Italy to improve patrolling along the Tunisian coast.

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Libyan refugees reach tiny Italian island

Lampedusa, Italy (CNN) -- Shortly after dawn, an open blue wooden fishing boat from Libya limped its way into the port of this tiny island, crammed with at least 166 shivering passengers, all of them apparently migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Italian coast guard officers and rescue workers helped offload the passengers, wrapping an infant in a metallic blanket and taking at least one man away on a stretcher.

The passengers left behind husks of bread, soggy blankets, and fluorescent life jackets, scattered in the hull of the boat.

"I still have the trauma inside me. Because of the cold, the water. Because I've never tried this before in my life," said a 21-year old man from Sierra Leone who only gave his first name Abubakr.

Abubakr said the boat departed from the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Thursday morning and reached this tiny Italian island after a perilous 24-hour journey. The boat was just the first of at least four boats that arrived Friday.

By mid-day, officials from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said at least 1,256 people had arrived from Libya by sea, and more boats were on the way.

Most of the refugees were from Sub-Saharan Africa, including Sierra Leone and Senegal. There were also Bangladeshis, some Egyptians and Tunisians.

"The sea is really difficult ... I vomited so much," said Ibrahim Cooper, 26, also from Sierra Leone.

Despite reports that a similar ship sank off the coast of Libya, killing at least 16 migrants, more than 30,000 migrants and refugees from Tunisia and Libya have risked this dangerous journey to Lampedusa since last February.

"We expect four more boats today," said Laura Boldrini, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Late Thursday night, Italian authorities were tracking one boat from Libya carrying 250 migrants that was said to be leaking. That vessel is believed to now be in the territorial waters of Malta.

Passengers onboard this morning's boat said they made the journey to escape the fighting in Libya.

"It's a war situation now," Abubakr said. "Anything can happen. That's why we have to run for our lives. Because we are blacks. We are not secure in that country."

Cooper huddled on the pavement of the port, eating a biscuit distributed by Italian emergency workers.

"We are now refugees in Italy," Cooper said. "The Italian government and the E.U. should do something to help us."

The armada of leaky boats full of migrants that have flooded Lampedusa over the past three months has become a hot-button political issue both in Italy and the European Union.

A diplomatic spat erupted recently when France prevented a train carrying dozens of Tunisian migrants from crossing the border from Italy.

I still have the trauma inside me. Because of the cold, the water. Because I've never tried this before in my life.
--Abubakr, from Sierra Leone

Meanwhile, this week, the Danish government announced it would begin checking passports at the border of Denmark.

These measures threaten to undermine the Schengen agreement, which allows free movement across European borders.

One unexpected consequence of the revolutions that have swept through North Africa is the collapse of border controls in Tunisia and Libya.

Lampedusa and Malta, both islands less than an hour's flight from the North African coast, have borne the brunt of the subsequent wave of migration.

At one point, the population of migrants vastly outnumbered the tiny population of Lampedusa, which numbers less than 6,000.

Migrants slept in the streets of this small fishing port. Dozens of blue fishing boats from Tunisia and Libya are piled up in a boat graveyard outside Lampedusa's small commercial port.

Nearby, graffiti on a wall says "Basta Siamo Pieni," meaning, "Enough, we are full."

Today, the number of new arrivals from Tunisia has reduced somewhat, thanks in part to a recent agreement with Italy to improve patrolling along the Tunisian coast.

But as the war rages on in Libya, the number of barely seaworthy vessels departing Tripoli for Europe has increased drastically.

A local priest is planning to hold a memorial service in Lampedusa later Friday for three other migrants who washed up on the shore of this small Mediterranean island last Sunday.

The boat they are believed to have traveled on lies on its side on the rocky shore of Lampedusa days after it ran aground.

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