Syrian rebels capture Turkish border town

PanARMENIAN.Net - Free Syrian Army fighters captured a town on the Turkish border on Thursday, November 9 in a push to seize control of frontier areas from President Bashar al-Assad's forces, a rebel commander and opposition sources said, according to Reuters.

Ten people were killed in clashes as rebels took Ras al-Ain, an Arab and Kurd town in the northeastern oil-producing province of Hasaka, 600 km (375 miles) from Damascus, the sources said.

"The crossing is important because it opens another line to Turkey, where we can send the wounded and get supplies," said Khaled al-Walid, a commander in the Raqqa Rebel Division, based in a neighboring province.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

Speaking by phone from Ras al-Ain, Walid said the rebels controlled a wide area along the Turkish border, 80 kms (50 miles) deep, including a road from the contested city of Aleppo to Hasaka.

In the last three months, the mainly Arab Sunni rebels have captured several outposts on the 800-km (500-mile) border, steadily moving toward the northeast, home to a large proportion of Syria's one-million-strong Kurdish minority.

The Kurdish Council, a coalition of Kurdish parties opposed to Assad, called on the Free Syrian Army to leave Ras al-Ain, saying the clashes, as well as fear of Syrian army bombardment, had prompted most of the town's 50,000 inhabitants to flee.