Syrian children sneak into Turkey to feed their families

GUVECCI, Turkey — 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.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 pas

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