Syrian forces have opened fire at a refugee camp inside Turkey injuring at least three people - as a UN brokered peace plan looked doomed to failure.
A Turkish official said that gunfire targeted a camp near the town of Kilis in the southwestern Gaziantep province, injuring two refugees and a Turkish translator.
Turkey immediately summoned the Syrian charge d'affaires and asked that the fire be halted.
s the first such attack since Turkey began sheltering thousands of refugees last summer. More than 24,000 refugees have crossed from Syria into Turkey.
At least two more refugees were killed and several wounded in attacks on the Syrian side of the border, officials said.
The attack on Turkish territory came as a truce plan, devised by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, and due to come into effect on Tuesday, foundered.
The plan specifies the withdrawal of Syrian forces from residential areas, followed by a ceasefire from both sides, within 48 hours.
But on Sunday, Syria's Foreign Ministry made fresh demands - insisting they will only withdraw troops after a written guarantee from rebels to lay down their weapons.
That demand was swiftly rejected by the rebels.
Riad al-Asaad, Free Syrian Army commander, said he was ready to abide by a the pact, but did not recognise the regime and thus "will not give guarantees" to them.
Annan's spokesman made no comment on the setback and he has not said what would happen if his deadlines were ignored.
The envoy was due in Turkey today to visit Syrian refugee camps near the border, a Turkish diplomatic source said.
Even before the setback, expectations were low that the Bashar al-Assad regime would honour the agreement.
Russia, an Assad ally that supports the ceasefire plan, may now be the only one able to salvage it.
A Russian diplomat said that Moscow was working with the Syrian authorities to seek an end to violence and the start of talks with their opponents.
But Russia Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov stopped short of publicly pressing the government to meet the military withdrawal deadline.
The rest of the international community, unwilling to contemplate military intervention, has little leverage over Syria.
However, China, who along with Russia, has provided diplomatic support for Syria, urged the regime to honour the truce.
"China urges the Syrian government and parties concerned in Syria to seize the important opportunities, to honour their commitment of ceasefire and withdrawal of troops," said foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin.
In recent days, instead of preparing for a withdrawal, regime troops have stepped up shelling attacks on residential areas.
The shelling has killed dozens of civilians every day in what the opposition have described as a frenzied rush to gain ground.
Activists said at least 21 people were killed in violence on Sunday.
"Mortar rounds are falling like rain," said activist Tarek Badrakhan, describing an assault in the central city of Homs on Sunday.
He spoke via Skype as explosions were heard in the background. The regime is exploiting the truce plan "to kill and commit massacres", he said.
Annan said that the escalation was "unacceptable" but Syria said its acceptance of the Annan deal last week was misunderstood.
Instead, Assad's government has suggested it would not be able to withdraw its troops under current conditions.
In addition to requesting written guarantees from the opposition, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdessi has made several other demands.
The Government wants assurances from Annan that Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia - Assad's most active critics - halt "financing and arming of terrorist groups".
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are said to be creating a multimillion dollar fund to pay rebel fighters.
Turkey, meanwhile, has floated the idea of creating buffer zones for refugees in Syrian territory, near the Turkish border.
Many had expected the Assad regime to stall and create new obstacles to a truce because it has little to fear from the international community, said analysts.
Real Shocking Crimes caught on camera: "Warning Graphic."
What your mainstream media never tell you: Marvel at the al-Jazeera film crew whipping the crowd to hysteria. This is what most UK/american mainstream media do ; get the crowds TO ACT for the cameras. Ever noticed the STAGED gun shots or in-the-lens chanting? It's all fake, staged propaganda for the liars at Sky/ITN/BBC?CNN/Fox. اسامہ بن لادن ہلاکओसामा बिन लादेन को मार डाला قتل أسامة بن لادن Oussama Ben Laden tué Osama Bin Laden getötet Usama bin Ladin dödas DURBAN, South Africa -- “No high hopes for Durban.” “Binding treaty unlikely.” “No deal this year.” Thus ran the headlines. The profiteering UN bureaucrats here think otherwise. Their plans to establish a world government paid for by the West on the pretext of dealing with the non-problem of “global warming” are now well in hand. As usual, the mainstream media have simply not reported what is in the draft text which the 194 states parties to the UN framework convention on climate change are being asked to approve. Behind the scenes, throughout the year since Cancun, the now-permanent bureaucrats who have made highly-profitable careers out of what they lovingly call “the process” have been beavering away at what is now a 138-page document.
Its catchy title is "Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action Under the Convention -- Update of the amalgamation of draft texts in preparation of [one imagines they mean 'for'] a comprehensive and balanced outcome to be presented to the Conference of the Parties for adoption at its seventeenth session: note by the Chair.” In plain English, these are the conclusions the bureaucracy wants. The contents of this document, turgidly drafted with all the UN's skill at what the former head of its documentation center used to call “transparent impenetrability”, are not just off the wall – they are lunatic.
