Syrians shot as they flee for Turkish safe haven, survivors say

THE flow of Syrian refugees arriving in neighbouring Turkey has all but stopped, amid fears that security forces are preventing civilians escaping president Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown.

Human rights groups say they are unable to confirm dozens of reports that people trying to escape Syria have been shot dead, but the trickle of arrivals bring horrific stories of bloodshed from across the mountain border. They describe a build-up of tanks and troops, illustrating that Mr Assad and his family show no sign of easing their grip on power after 41 years.

Mohammed, a former police officer, arrived at the Turkish border town of Yayladagi on Sunday after surviving an ambush by security forces that killed his wife and his driver.

Yesterday, cuddling his year-old daughter, he described how his wife and elderly father had hired a car to take them from their village home near the western city of Hama - the scene of intense bloodshed last week - to the border.

They planned to send back the car and walk the last couple of miles along mountain paths that criss-cross the border.

But about 15 minutes' drive from the border they were flagged down by a policeman. After checking their driver's documents, said Mohammed, he waved them on.

"When we started to drive on, we saw a burnt-out car hidden in the trees and then they started shooting. They had given us permission to go, but it was an ambush."

The car came to an abrupt halt and Mohammed threw himself through the door, dragging his seven-months pregnant wife behind him. She was bleeding heavily from three gunshot wounds, he added.

"She told me to go, to make sure our daughter was safe and that I wouldn't live if I tried to take her.

"It was the hardest thing. The bullets were still coming," said Mohammed, who asked that his full name be withheld. "I try to tell myself she is a martyr for Syria."

Activists say more than 1,800 people have died and more than 30,000 arrested since democracy demonstrations erupted five months ago. Thousands have fled to the safety of camps in Turkey, but the numbers have decreased in the past fortnight.

The Scotsman has also learned that a man was shot and wounded on Saturday as he tried to take food across the border for families sheltering in forests on the Syrian side. And four people were killed as they tried to escape the crackdown on Tuesday.

Human rights campaigners say they are investigating dozens of reports that civilians have been shot dead as they tried to cross.

Mousab Azzawi, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: "People are finding it very difficult to escape now. Tanks and soldiers occupy many of the key strategic points along the border," he said.The UN Security Council is due to meet today to discuss the latest bloodshed.