Turkey steps up Syria strikes, says will defend borders

By Jonathon Burch and Murad Sezer

AKCAKALE, Turkey | Thu Oct 4, 2012 7:40pm EDT

(Reuters) - Turkey stepped up retaliatory artillery strikes on a Syrian border town on Thursday, killing several Syrian soldiers, while its parliament approved further military action in the event of another spillover of the Syrian conflict.
Seeking to unwind the most serious cross-border escalation in its 18-month-old crackdown on dissent, Damascus apologized through the United Nations for shelling which killed five civilians in southeast Turkey on Wednesday and said it would not happen again, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said.
Syria's staunch ally Russia said it had received assurances from Damascus that the mortar strike had been a tragic accident.

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