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Summary: They are aged from 10-15, and their families depend upon them. Each day these young Syrians cross into neighbouring Turkey to get food, evading the Syrian troops encirling their border villages.
[22 June 2011] - Mahdi, 13, takes a drag on a cigarette. He is tired but determined: "I have just arrived and in the afternoon I'll bring back bread, water and biscuits," he told AFP in the village of Guvecci in southern Turkey, from where he can see Syrian territory across the hills. Accompanied by several other boys of a similar age, Mahdi explains that he is the "courrier" for his parents, grandparents and five brothers. Most of the children wandering through the streets of Guvecci are from camps housing the thousands of displaced Syrians, which are dotted along the border with Turkey. Their families are reluctant to leave their precarious places in the camps, afraid that they will be taken over by other families before they can get back. Many of the camp dwellers say they witnessed atrocities carried out by Syrian forces trying to quell an unprecedented revolt against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. More than 1,300 civilians have been killed and some 10,000 people arrested, according to Syrian human rights groups, in the crackdown that has seen troops dispatched to crush pro-democracy protests across the country. Turkey, which has already welcomed some 10,000 Syrian refugees, is also providing humanitarian assistance to those displaced on the Syrian side of the border. However there are severe food shortages, particularly further into Syrian territory, according to local sources. The Turkish armed police are normally tolerant of the boys crossing the border on their mission in search of food. "Once a Turkish gendarme helped me to carry my bag which had 20 loaves of bread in it," said 14-year-old Rafik. "Come along, I'll show you how we do it, but you have to pay attention, it's dangerous for grown-ups," explained Mohammed, 15, retracing his path back through the no-man's land at the border. You have to sneak past the guards around the woods, then wait until the Turkish police on the border road have their backs turned and make a dash towards Syria, he continued. Once back on home turf the situation is uncertain and often dangerous. Some of the youths come from Syrian villages completely under army control, including Hidr-i Jous, just a few kilometres (miles) from the frontier. According to Turkish villagers, the Syrian army advances a little each day, and has now reached the border region. Gunfire and explosions were heard in Guvecci Tuesday, coming from Syria. One Turkish villager said that friends in Syria told him that "at least six tanks" had arrived at the border "to dissuade people from crossing into Turkey". Karim, a Syrian who was in Turkey Tuesday to buy medicine, said there was nothing left to eat in his village of 3,000 residents. He refused to name his hometown "for fear of reprisals by Bashar's men." Assad's continued defiance suggests his regime is ready to fight to the end to stay in power rather than offer real concessions to protesters, analysts say. Popular protests demanding the end of close to 50 years of rule by the Baath Party broke out in Syria on March 15. Syrian troops have since entered protest hubs across the country, crushing dissent with increasingly deadly violence. "There's nothing left, The soldiers patrol the edge of the village and everyone is afraid," said Karim. "We send our children out in search of bread, but they can only bring back three or four bags, it's not enough," he explained.