Rebels Said to Defeat Syrian Forces in Battle for Border Post
For the second time in a week, the bloody civil war in Syria spilled across border areas on Wednesday as rebel forces reportedly expelled government troops from a northern frontier crossing in an apparent expansion of the their effort to control infiltration and resupply routes in the campaign to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
Turkish schools in the region were closed for the day after intense overnight clashes as the rebels attacked the Syrian frontier post at Tal Abyad, south of the Turkish town of Sanliurfa, according to the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency.
Television footage on Wednesday appeared to show members of the insurgent Free Syrian Army standing on the rooftop and hauling down the Syrian flag at the Tal Abyad customs post, which is less than a mile from Turkey’s Akcakale crossing.