Turkey closes border with Syria

All Turkey's border posts with Syria are to be closed to lorries from Wednesday, an official from the Turkish customs and trade ministry has said, in response to worsening security conditions, reports the Guardian.

Syrian rebels seized control of several posts on the Syrian side of the frontier over the last week in their 16-month-old uprising against Bashar al-Assad.

The closure will halt the passage of certain vehicles between Turkey and Syria. Refugees from Syria, who have been fleeing into Turkey in their thousands to escape the conflict, cross the border through smuggling routes.