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Summary UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Syria to respect territorial sovereignty of its neighbours.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Damascus to respect the territorial sovereignty of its neighbors after Syrian shelling killed five Turks and sparked a retaliatory attack Wednesday.The victims, among them a mother and her three children, were the first Turkish nationals killed by cross-border fire in the Syrian conflict.Ban expressed his deepest concern at the shells fired from Tall al-Abyad in Syria that smashed into buildings in Akcakale, the second time that fire from Syria killed people inside Turkey since the uprising against the regime in Damascus erupted in March 2011.The secretary general has repeatedly warned that the ongoing militarization of the conflict in Syria is leading to tragic results for the Syrian people, Bans spokesman Martin Nesirky said in a statement.Todays incidents... again demonstrated how Syrias conflict is threatening not only the security of the Syrian people but increasingly causing harm to its neighbors.Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called Ban, the UNs Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen over the incident, his office said.The transatlantic military alliance will hold a meeting urgently, according to a Turkish statement.Ban calls on the Syria government to respect fully the territorial integrity of its neighbors as well as to end the violence against the Syrian people, his spokesman said.He calls on all parties to reduce tensions and to forge a path toward a peaceful resolution of the Syria crisis.
