1,700 Turkmen flee Syrian regime attacks to Turkey

(Zaman Al Wasl- Anadolu Agency))- Around 1,700 Syrian Turkmen have arrived in southern Turkey over the last three days, a local governor said Sunday, as they flee regime attacks backed by Russian airstrikes.

Hatay province Governor Ercan Topaca said 28 injured civilians from the Bayir Bucak border region were among the refugees, one of who had died.

He told a news conference that up to 30,000 inhabitants of the mountainous area could potentially be forced from their homes in attacks on moderate opposition forces and Turkmen and Arab villages.

Meanwhile, almost 5,500 people arrived at the Yamadi refugee camp in Syria, Turkish authorities told an Anadolu Agency correspondent. They discounted media reports that up to 40,000 Turkmen were heading for the border.

There are now around 14,000 Syrians living at Yamadi, which is close to Yayladagi, Hatay.

The Turkmen refugees have been taken in at the Arfali camp, where they had been given aid including tents, blankets, beds, children’s clothing, food and medical attention.

Meanwhile, Omar Abdullah, Syrian Turkmen rebel commander told Anadolu agency that regime forces on Sunday had taken parts of strategic Tel Dagh, or al Ahmar Mount. The clashes are still underway, he added.

Rebels are still keep controlling strategic territory, Abdullah said, denying reports of imminent fall out to favor regime and allied militias.

Turkmen are a Turkic ethnic group based largely in Syria and Iraq.

Since it began in 2011, Syria's war has fractured into a complex array of fronts between Kurds, rebels, regime and jihadists, and has killed about 300,000 people.