Syria Says Foiled 'Terrorist' Infiltration from Turkey

Syrian forces clashed Monday with a group of "terrorists" seeking to enter the restive northwestern province of Idlib from Turkey, killing and wounding a number of them, official media reported.

"The authorities today foiled an attempt by a group of armed terrorists to enter Syria from Turkey, in an area between the towns of Darkush and Salqin," the official SANA news agency reported.

Syrian border guards clashed with the group, a number of whom were killed and wounded, while others fled to Turkey, according to the report.

"Turkish medical teams evacuated the dead and wounded," SANA said, adding that the authorities "seized weapons that the terrorists had left when they fled, like guns, RPG rockets, modern communication devices and explosives."

Syrian officials frequently blame terrorists for attacks carried out against the security forces.

The Local Coordination Committees activist group, which organizes protests on the ground, also mentioned clashes in Darkush, but said they were between regular soldiers and deserters fighting for the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes had left six regime troops wounded, while the LCC said army bombardments had caused several houses to catch fire in the area.

Turkey on Monday became the latest country to close its embassy in Damascus.

A Turkish diplomatic source said the mission was closed because of deteriorating security conditions in Syria and that all diplomatic personnel had left Damascus.

Syria's crackdown on dissent has seen more than 9,100 people killed since anti-regime protests first erupted in March last year, according to the Britain-based Observatory.