Four dead in Syrian attack on Turkish pilgrims

A bus carrying Turkish pilgrims came under attack near the Syrian city of Homs as at least four more people were killed Monday in a regime crackdown in the same flashpoint region, reports said. The latest incidents came as Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad his days were numbered and that he could not stay in power indefinitely through the use of military power. Russia for its part accused the West of provocative behaviour in the Syrian crisis, saying Western countries were telling the opposition to forget dialogue with the embattled president. Two people were injured as the bus transporting Turks back from the Muslim hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia came under attack by "Syrian soldiers" after taking a wrong turn near Homs, said the private CNN-Turk television station. "We confirm that an attack took place in Syria," a Turkish foreign ministry official told AFP, without reporting casualties or giving further information. An opposition umbrella group, the Local Coordination Committees (LCC), issued a statement saying two buses had come under fire and published a video online showing the aftermath of the attack. "Military and security forces open(ed) fire on two buses of a Turkish company heading towards Turkey via the Bab Hawa border crossing, injuring some of the Turkish travellers," it said. The video showed several shattered windows in one bus. One pilgrim and the bus driver were injured, according to Turkish media reports. "We were a convoy of eight to nine buses. First we saw a red car carrying four people. They fired at us from there," injured pilgrim Cemil Karli, 50, told Turkey's Anatolia news agency. "We don't know who attacked and why... We could have died," adding that the buses managed to continue through to the Turkish border. Stepping up the pressure on one-time ally Assad, Erdogan said at a meeting in Istanbul, referring to the Syrian leader: "You can remain in power with tanks and cannons only up to a certain point. The day will come when you'll also leave." The reported bus attack coincided with deadly early morning raids by Syrian security forces on Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and LCC both said in statements received in Nicosia. "Two people were killed and seven others were wounded in Homs while two others died and eight were wounded in (nearby) Qusair by gunfire during raids on Monday morning by the army and security forces," said the Observatory. The military also raided the towns of Karnaz, Latalmleh and Kafar Nabude in the central province of Hama, the Britain-based group added. Dozens of military vehicles carried troops into northern Idlib province, where heavy machinegun fire was heard in the village of Ehseen and telephone lines were cut, it reported. The LCC said that as many as five people, including a Saudi national, were killed in Homs after 20 armoured vehicles entered the neighbourhood of Al-Bayada. Eight people were wounded by "random gunfire" and rocket-propelled grenades fired at a building, the LCC said in a separate statement received by AFP. The LCC, which organises opposition activists on the ground across Syria, said that a similar security operation was conducted in the city of Hama, farther to the north. The latest bloodshed came a day after Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem brushed off the threat of a civil war and looming Arab League sanctions. At least 24 more people were reported to have been killed at the weekend, adding to the UN figure of the more than 3,500 deaths since mid-March in the Syrian crackdown on protests. Despite the threat of sanctions, Syria let pass a deadline at midnight on Saturday to halt what the Arab League has called its "bloody repression" by pulling its troops from the street and engaging in talks with the opposition. The 22-member Arab bloc said its foreign ministers would hold crisis talks over Syria in Cairo on Thursday, after it rejected changes proposed by Damascus to its proposal to send an observer mission to the country. Muallem said he would pursue talks with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi over the observers, but insisted Arab proposals were "unbalanced" and undermined Syria's sovereignty. The Arab League also came in for criticism on Monday from Russia, a longtime ally of the Syrian regime. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained that while the Arab League had called for a halt to violence in Syria, Western capitals had been telling the opposition to refrain from dialogue with Assad. Russia, one of few powers still offering support to Assad, has repeatedly called on the West for a more balanced approach in the crisis saying violence by both the authorities and the opposition should be condemned. In an interview with London's Sunday Times, President Assad said he was "definitely" prepared to fight and die for Syria if faced with foreign intervention. "The conflict will continue and the pressure to subjugate Syria will continue," Assad said. "I assure you that Syria will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it."