Two Syrian Refugees Die in Turkey amid Border Tension

Two Syrians among a group of 17 who were wounded when their village was shelled overnight died after crossing the border into nearby Turkey, an official said Monday.

Two other Syrians and a Turkish translator were wounded near a refugee camp in the same area when shots were fired from Syria, as border tension escalated ahead of a visit by top international mediator Kofi Annan.

"The number of wounded brought into Turkey reached 17 but two of them died later on," a Turkish official was quoted as saying by Anatolia.

The wounded were helped to the border after their village in Aleppo province was shelled. Refugees on the Turkish side of the border often go out to meet fellow countrymen trying to flee.

"There are too many wounded, we brought only as many as we could," said one of the people from the group that carried the injured into Turkey.

The wounded were taken to Turkish hospitals.

A diplomatic source earlier said that two Syrians and a Turkish translator were wounded by shots fired from the Syrian side of the border early Monday.

It was not immediately clear who fired the shots and whether the group smuggling the wounded out of Syria was targeted, but the incident caused panic among refugees at the camp in the southeastern Turkish city of Kilis.

According to Turkish diplomatic sources, Kofi Annan, the top envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League on the Syrian crisis, as well as prominent U.S. senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman are to visit refugees at the border on Tuesday.