KILIS, Turkey (Reuters) – Life is starting to look more permanent for the Syrian refugees in Kilis. There are no tents in the Turkish camp. Instead, thousands of white cubicles sit in endless rows.

With every grey brick laid along the paths that criss-cross the sea of container houses, Terkia Zarzoureh feels she is further from returning to her home across the border.

REYHANLI, Turkey (Reuters) – Refugees who have crossed the Turkish border say the shaky ceasefire in Syria has done nothing to convince them that the year-long revolt against President Bashar al-Assad is over.

“The killing in Syria hasn’t even started yet,” says Abdullah Kartan, a teacher who fled to the Reyhanli refugee camp in Turkey.

KILIS, Turkey, April 11 (Reuters) – Syrian refugees
sheltering in containers at a Turkish refugee camp at the border
town of Kilis have spoken of their terror after troops loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad shot dead a rebel fighter within yards
of their encampment.

Fleeing a year-long crackdown on anyone who opposes the
government, the refugees had hoped to find sanctuary just inside
the Turkish border. But instead, on the eve of a U.N.-backed
ceasefire, they say the bloodshed they were seeking to escape
has come to their doorstep, spreading fear and the occasional
stray bullet among thousands of men, women and children.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian troops pounded opposition areas, activists said, killing 74 civilians in an offensive that has sent thousands of refugees surging into Turkey before next week’s U.N.-backed ceasefire aimed at staunching a year of bloodshed.

At least 15 rebels and 17 security force members were also killed, raising the death toll in violence to over 100.

BEIRUT, April 7 (Reuters) – Syrian troops pounded opposition
areas on Saturday, activists said, killing 53 people in an
offensive that has sent thousands of refugees surging into
Turkey before next week’s U.N.-backed ceasefire aimed at
staunching a year of bloodshed.

Each side has accused the other of intensifying assaults in
the run-up to the truce due to take effect early on Thursday if
government forces begin pulling back from towns 48 hours earlier
in line with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Thirteen bodies were found dumped on the street in the Syrian city of Homs on Saturday with gunshots to the head and blood drenching the pavement, a video by activists showed.

“We’ve discovered a massacre today in Deir Baalba neighborhood. Look at this, Muslims. Look at this, Arabs,” a man shouted as he walked towards the corpses, thrown on their backs or face down in pools of blood.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian troops pounded opposition areas on Saturday, activists said, killing 43 people in an offensive that has sent thousands of refugees surging into Turkey before next week’s U.N.-backed ceasefire aimed at staunching a year of bloodshed.

Each side has accused the other of intensifying assaults in the run-up to the truce due to take effect early on Thursday if government forces begin pulling back from towns 48 hours earlier in line with U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.

BEIRUT/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that Syria’s conflict is deepening and attacks on civilian areas show no sign of abating, despite assurances from Damascus that it has begun withdrawing troops under an international peace plan.

Residents of at least one area under fire from the forces of President Bashar al-Assad poured scorn on the official assertions that troops were pulling back in several cities before a cease-fire which is supposed to start on April 10.

BEIRUT, April 5 (Reuters) – Syria told U.N.-Arab League
envoy Kofi Annan it had begun pulling troops out of several
cities on Thursday in line with a peace plan accepted by
President Bashar al-Assad, but his foes said the army was still
firing in those towns and elsewhere.

Annan said the Syrian army and rebels must end all violence
by 6 a.m. Syrian time (0400 GMT) on April 12 if the government
meets its agreed deadline to halt fighting two days earlier.

April 5 (Reuters) – Syria told U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi
Annan it had begun pulling troops out of several cities on
Thursday in line with a peace plan accepted by President Bashar
al-Assad, but his foes said the army was still firing in those
towns and elsewhere.

Annan’s spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said Syrian authorities “told
us that they have begun withdrawing troops from certain areas”,
namely the cities of Deraa, Idlib and Zabadani. Speaking in
Geneva, he said this was being verified, but did not say how.