By Oliver Holmes and Jon Hemming
BEIRUT/ANKARA Tue Jun 26, 2012 1:39pm EDT
BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Syria to beware the wrath of Turkey after the shooting down of a warplane and said he had ordered the armed forces to react to any military threat from Syria near the two countries' border.
Erdogan's warning to Syria reflected increased tensions not only on the Mediterranean coast, where the aircraft was shot down last Friday, but on a long common land border criss-crossed by rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
Syria said on Sunday it had killed several "terrorists" infiltrating from Turkey.
In Syria itself, Damascus suburbs were gripped by the worst fighting in the capital since the uprising against Assad began 16 months ago. The city had long been seen as a bastion of support for the president.
Erdogan, who fell out with Assad after he dismissed his advice to allow reforms, said Turkey was no warmonger.
"Our rational response should not be perceived as weakness, our mild manners do not mean we are a tame lamb," he told a meeting of his parliamentary party. "Everybody should know that Turkey's wrath is just as strong and devastating as its friendship is valuable."
NATO member states, summoned by Turkey to an urgent meeting in Brussels, condemned Syria over the incident that resulted in the loss of two airmen. The cautious wording of a statement demonstrated the fear of Western powers as well as Turkey that armed intervention in Syria could stir a sectarian conflict across the region.
"Those who want war may be disappointed by the prime minister's speech," Turkish journalist Mehmet Ali Birand wrote on social media. "But a big part of society breathed a sigh of relief."
Erdogan said the armed forces' rules of engagement had been changed as a result of the attack, which Turkey says took place without warning in international air space.
"Every military element approaching Turkey from the Syrian border and representing a security risk and danger will be assessed as a military threat and will be treated as a military target," he said.
DAMASCUS FIGHTING
Turkey is the base for the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and shelters more than 30,000 refugees - a number Erdogan worries could rise sharply as fighting spreads. Rebel soldiers move regularly across the border and defectors muster inside Turkey.
Fighting has often moved very close to the frontier and could under the new rules of engagement draw Turkish military reaction, especially if Syrian forces pursue rebels.
Rebels and pro-Assad forces now clash daily across Syria. Fighting broke out in the suburbs of Damascus on Tuesday, activists said.
Video posted by activists showed heavy gunfire and explosions. Blood pooled on a pavement in Qudsiya suburb and a blood trail led to a building to where one casualty had been dragged. A naked man writhed, his body pierced by shrapnel.
The Syrian state news agency SANA said insurgents had blocked the old road from Damascus to Beirut.
Dozens of them were killed or wounded and others arrested it said. Government forces also seized rocket launchers, sniper rifles, machineguns and a huge amount of ammunition, it said.
Syrian and Turkish accounts of Friday's plane shoot down differed.
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