The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Wednesday 16 migrants, including three children, had been killed in the past four months as they tried to cross into Turkey.
The true number is believed to be higher, according to a Syrian police officer and a Syrian smuggler who lives in Turkey, but it is impossible to say exactly how many because the bodies of those who fell on the Syrian side of the border were dragged back to be buried in the war zone, the Daily Maill reported.
The observatory details how a man and his child were killed in Ras al-Ain – on the eastern stretch of the Syria-Turkey border – on February 6. And two refugees were then shot dead at Guvveci on the western stretch of the border on March 5.
According to the smuggler, refugees who cross the border will now ‘either be killed or captured’.