SYRIA

Turkey Deploys Aircraft to Border

While U.N. is unable to determine blame for Houla massacre.

Turkey said on Thursday that it will be stationing antiaircraft batteries on the Syrian border, as United Nations envoy Kofi Annan announced he would convening an “action group” of diplomats in Geneva on Saturday. The move comes two days after Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that “every military element that approaches the Turkish border from Syria in a manner that constitutes a security risk or danger would be considered as a threat and would be treated as a military target.” Meanwhile, a preliminary U.N. report inquiry could not determine who carried the massacre in the town of Houla, when armed gunmen allegedly walked door to door and shot people. The report said it is unclear if pro-government forces were responsible, or rebels—or if the killers were from “foreign groups with unknown affiliation.”