Four dead as armed protesters, Turkish forces clash in north Syria

Four people were killed after armed protesters and Turkish forces clashed in Syria's Ankara-controlled northwest Monday, a war monitor said, in demonstrations sparked by violence against Syrians in Turkey a day earlier. 

Hundreds demonstrated throughout the territory, the so called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, following a rampage against Syrian businesses and properties in central Turkey where a Syrian man had been accused of harassing a child.

"Armed demonstrators and Turkish forces engaged in armed clashes... in the city of Afrin," in Syria's Turkish-controlled north, said the Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

 Turkish army troops have suppressed an uprising by Syrian opposition fighters protesting Ankara closing checkpoints used by local smugglers in the north of Aleppo province.

According to Sham FM radio, at least 25 gang members were killed in gun battles in the border towns of Azaz, Afrin, and Al-Bab. Earlier, Turkish troops sent army reinforcements to the area of the Bab es-Salam and Al-Rai border crossings in northern Syria, where protests broke out by opposition groups unhappy with the closure of the checkpoint.

In turn, Al Mayadeen TV reported that the most violent clashes took place in Afrin (60 km from Aleppo), where militants attacked Turkish checkpoints and military sites.