You wouldn't know it from the lack of media attention, but a major city is being destroyed in Syria.

The country's largest city, Aleppo, has been under siege for over a month. It has emerged as the key stronghold in the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces continue to intensify their aerial bombardment of the city.

With nearly 3 million people in the city, this is a bigger siege than Leningrad.

People in Syria are calling it "The Most Of All Battles."

Still, few news reports make it out of the city, and those that do mean little to Westerners who may know Damascus but have never heard of Aleppo.

Aleppo had a population of 2.985 million

Source: CIA World Factbook

Note: The Syrian government's population estimate is a bit more conservative: 2.132 million. 

That's more people than there are in Chicago (2.7 million).

Aleppo had 97,767 business establishments in operation. That's over three times as many as there are in San Francisco.

Source: Aleppo City Development Strategy

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

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While the U.S. and Europe mull what steps, if any, to take in intervening against President Assad’s brutal crackdown on Syria’s opposition movement, it seems as though the Free Syrian Army has ramped up efforts to take control of the country’s airspace.

Word comes via Twitter (so it should be taken with a grain of salt) that the Free Syrian Army has successfully shot down one of that country’s MiGs in the northern suburb of Hama, a city in the west of the country and only 30 miles from Homs.

Additional claims have been made that another MiG was shot down in Idlib, a city of less than 100 thousand that has seen heavy shelling by the Syrian army and has been the site of several violent clases and car bomb attacks by anti-government forces.

Both attacks are attributed to the Idlib Free Syrian Army battalion Shuhadaa Jabal Alzawiyah (Martyrs of Jabal Alzawiyah) at this time.

A MiG was shot down near the northern #Hama suburbs. A MiG and a helicopter were shot in Abu Althuhoor near the airport. #Idlib #Syria #FSA

— Abdullah Aldahhan (@SyrianSmurf) September 4, 2012

Both Hama and Homs are currently epicenters of the opposition movement against President Assad—Hama was the site of a notorious massacre in 1982, when some 25,000 Syrians were killed during that country’s Islamic uprising under orders of then president Hafez al-Assad.

Several videos of the alleged wreckage of the MiG has been posted via YouTube—one even claims that a pilot of one of the downed aircraft was shot in mid-air once ejecting.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that the FSA is prepared to consider both airports in Damascus and Aleppo legitimate targets as of September 10.

Could this be an effort by the FSA to bolster support for a no-fly zone from Western nations, similar to that implemented by NATO during Libya’s ouster of al-Gaddafi?

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More than two dozen leading film associations called early Friday for the immediate release of Syrian filmmaker and festival director Owra Nyrabia, who has been missing since Aug. 23.

The statement was signed by film organizations including the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the International Documentary Association, representing tens of thousands of leading filmmakers working in the U.S. and abroad. 

Nyrabia (pictured with his wife Diana El-Jeiroudi at the Sarajevo film festival in July) was detained by authorities in Damascus on August 23rd -- his whereabouts remain unknown. He was believed to have been detained by Syrian security services as he prepared to board a flight from Damascus to Cairo.

On Thursday, the Toronto Film Festival released a statement expressing concern about the filmmaker.

“Nyrabia belongs to the emerging generation of Syrian filmmakers passionate about world cinema and passionate about freedom. We are extremely concerned by his arrest — filmmakers must be allowed to express themselves through their films, without fear of reprisal,” the festival release said.

Nyrabia's wife, Diana El-Jeiroudi, issued a statement last week saying she had had no contact with him and had heard from the airline that he did not board the plane. Nyrabia and his wife formed the first independent production company in Syria and founded Dox Box, a festival that brought international documentaries to Syria.

The organizations released this statement:

“Syrian filmmaker and festival director Orwa Nyrabia has been missing since Thursday, August 23 after attempting travel from the Damascus International Airport. Nyrabia works as a film producer and is one of the founders of the DOX BOX International Documentary Film Festival held in Syria. Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera, IDFA, Screen International, RealScreen and many other film organizations have covered the news of Orwa’s disappearance over the last few days.

“We, the undersigned, represent tens of thousands of leading filmmakers working around the world. As such, we believe that the artistry and power of film is vital to societies and cultures globally. We strongly defend the right of filmmakers everywhere to practice their art and bring humanity closer together through the telling of our shared stories.

"Orwa Nyrabia is not only a celebrated filmmaker, but also an artist who has devoted his life to bringing people and cultures together through film. Although Orwa is now being held in darkness somewhere, the filmmaking world is paying attention will continue to shine a light on him until he is safely reunited with his family. We call for his immediate return.

The following groups signed the statement:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

BRITDOC Foundation

The D-Word

DOC NYC

Docs in Progress

The Documentary Center, George Washington University

European Documentary Network

Film Independent

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

IFP

Independent Lens

International Documentary Association

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

ITVS

Kartemquin Films

POV

Producers Guild of America

San Francisco Film Society

The Scottish Documentary Institute

Stranger Than Fiction

Sundance Institute

Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Film Institute

True/False Film Fest

Women Make Movies

Writers Guild of America, West

SEE ALSO: Katy Perry and Rihanna a silly couple at the VMAs >

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ALEPPO, Syria — Earlier this week, I was filming a feature on life on the Frontlines of Aleppo, Syria. I was camping out with the men of Noor Den al-Zenke battalion, who man a two-block stretch of back streets that now forms the final line between government troops and opposition forces.

Click here to see the photos >

This narrow street had become a makeshift home for the men. Lounge chairs salvaged from abandoned homes formed an area for chatting and drinking tea. Meals were prepared on a grass mat in the middle of the street. We slept in a room on the lower floor in case of air raids. Lookouts were posted at each street corner to both watch and listen for new sniper positions and approaching troops and tanks.

On this morning, the men were relaxed and joking around as they cleaned their area from a tank attack the day before. That time, they had been prepared and the tank had fired too short. This time, the assault came with little warning.

More from Tracey Shelton: Surviving Aleppo (VIDEO)

As the cloud of smoke engulfed the street we ran back and frantically waited for the others to escape through the cloud of smoke and debris. But no one came. In that split second, those three jovial men had been reduced to broken, bleeding masses.

After a few minutes of disorientation, the vehicle arrived to transport the bodies. The survivors washed away the blood and flesh in a heartbreaking clean up.

New fighters came to take their posts. And the battle continued.

From left to right: Issa Aiash, 30, father of three, his young brother Ahmed, 17, and Sheihk Mamoud, 42, father of a newborn son, laugh and joke as they clean their post Saturday.

A call comes through that a tank was spotted nearby. The men immediately grab weapons.

Within seconds the tank blast has already hit.

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Human Rights Watch (HRW) is accusing the Syrian opposition of violating human rights laws and committing war crimes during the 18-month long civil war.

They claimed that, "armed opposition groups have subjected detainees to ill-treatment and torture and committed extrajudicial or summary executions in Aleppo, Latakia, and Idlib."

More than 20,000 people have been killed since the start of the conflict and over 250,000 have fled Syria, according to the U.N.

Some highlights from the findings:

• HRW found at least 12 cases of extrajudicial and summary executions by opposition forces.
• They also reported 6 confirmed cases of torture and a handful of unconfirmed reports.
• Some local judicial councils have relied on Sharia law, while others have used Syrian criminal law for criminal matters and Sharia law for civil disputes. HRW called into question the impartiality of many of the local judicial councils and questioned the due process standards of these councils.
• "Countries financing or supplying arms to opposition groups should send a strong signal to the opposition that they expect it to comply strictly with international human rights and humanitarian law."

Reuters also reports that the UN has also expanded its 'secret' list of Syrians suspected of violating war crimes. Human rights investigators have charged both sides with gross violations; Paulo Pinheiro, one of the investigators, noted that government forces have murdered and tortured civilians, "in what appears to be a state-directed policy." He also mentioned that rebels have "used prisoners to detonate vehicle-borne explosives."

There is no statute of limitations for these crimes, according to Pinheiro.

The Scale Of Conflict In Aleppo, Syria Will Blow Your Mind >

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The Syrian regime plans to deploy chemical weapons against its own people "as a last resort", the former head of Syria's chemical arsenal has said in an interview with a British newspaper.

Major-General Adnan Sillu said he defected from the Syrian army three months ago after being party to top-levels talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.

"We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas," he told The Times, referring to a meeting held at Syria's chemical weapons centre south of Damascus.

"We discussed this as a last resort – such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo."

Speaking from Turkey, General Sillu said he was certain President Bashar al-Assad's regime would eventually use chemical weapons against civilians, adding that the discussion had been "the last straw" which triggered his defection.

His comments come after German press reported on Tuesday that the Syrian army had tested a chemical weapons delivery system.

In his first interview since his defection, General Sillu said the Syrian regime had also considered supplying chemical weapons to the Lebanon-based militant group Hizbollah.

"They wanted to place warheads with the chemical weapons on missiles – to transfer them this way to Hizbollah. It was for use against Israel, of course," he said.

He suggested that the regime now had "nothing to lose" in sharing the weapons and added: "If a war starts between Hizbollah and Israel it will be only good for Syria."

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard also attended numerous meetings to discuss the use of chemical weapons, he said.

"They were always coming to visit and to advise. They were always sending us scientists and bringing our scientists to them. They were also involved on the political side of how to use the chemical weapons."

The German magazine Der Spiegel, citing "witnesses, reported Monday that the Syrian army has tested a chemical weapons delivery system, firing shells at a research centre in its northwestern desert region.

"Five or six empty shells devised for delivering chemical agents were fired by tanks and aircraft, at a site called Diraiham in the desert near the village of Khanasir," east of the city of Aleppo, Der Spiegel reported.

The Safira research centre in question is regarded as Syria's largest testing site for chemical weapons.

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In a bizarre bit of insult to injury in the digital world, the Syrian government just mass texted the rebels, "Game Over."

The text campaign comes in conjunction with what has been the bloodiest day for civilians since the start of the conflict. Al Arabiya is reporting that more than 300 civilians have died in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to an astounding 30,000 since March.

People on the ground are calling the day's work on behalf of Assad's regime a "massacre." The are videos which show the dead, and all appear to be male—a possibility that they were rebels.

And in a truly strange bit of digital psychological operations (psyops), the Assad regime followed the slaughter up with a text campaign. First the rebels got texts saying, "Game Over," and then longer texts urging rebels to surrender, the AP reports.

In terms of psyops, the texts are a far tactical cry from the leaflets the government dropped a month ago. Leaflets have been the standard since as far back as World War 2, and are still dropped in Afghanistan today.

The game is far from over though, as the rebels scored a huge hit by bombing government headquarters.

The government sent the texts to everyone with a subscription, but those with prepaid phones didn't get any texts.

Now: Read about this top analyst calling for a false flag attack >

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Sieges crippling Syria's two leading cities intensified on Friday, as opposition forces mounted their most concerted push to take control of Aleppo and loyalist troops conducted a huge security sweep through anti-regime strongholds in Damascus.

Fighting in Aleppo is reportedly heavier than at any point since rebel groups attacked the city on 19 July, with rebel leaders claiming they are nearing a "do-or-die" moment in their bid to claim the city.

Speaking to the Guardian, Bashir al-Haji, commander of Tawheed brigade in Aleppo, said: "The decisive battle for Aleppo started at 4pm local time [on Thursday]. We wanted to surprise the Syrian army, which had started to creep forward towards the southern neighbourhoods."

For the first time, fighting is reported to have reached several Kurdish areas in Aleppo, where supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' party (PKK), who are considered aligned to the regime, are thought to be.

Several other fronts have also been opened in the ancient city, where fighting over much of the past eight weeks has become a grinding stalemate, with neither side able to move forward.

Parts of north Aleppo and restive areas along an unofficial demarcation line in the centre, which separates rebel forces in the east from regime troops in the west, also saw fighting on Friday.

A building in the Syrian town of Azaz, only kilometres from the Bab al-Salam border crossing into the Turkish town of Killis, was bombed by a jet shortly before noon. There was no immediate word on casualties. Fighter jets have wreaked destruction on a daily basis in and around Aleppo, forcing rebel groups to frequently move command centres and disrupting their supply lines.

Ahead of the latest assault on Aleppo, the rebel leadership had tried to overcome frequent criticisms that it lacks co-ordination or even relevance on the battlefield by moving key commanders from the Turkish border to frontline areas in Syria.

The move did not meet a warm welcome from battle-weary commanders and fighters, who had displayed open resentment to senior defectors who had stayed in Turkey, rather than joining the fray.

Throughout the past year, as the popular uprising against the Assad regime morphed into unrestrained insurrection, the Free Syria Army has functioned more as a brand than a cohesive fighting force.

Rebel units seek funding and weapons from different sources and do not answer to a high command. Operations are often carried out unilaterally and decisive large-scale pushes have been rare.

The lack of co-ordination has been most evident in Damascus, where rebel groups have been on the back foot confronted by a relentless regime counterattack for the past month. Regime troops swept though the suburb of Barzeh on Friday, raiding homes and arresting suspects.

There have been similar assaults in recent days in the Douma and Thiyabiya areas, where activists have reported scores of summary executions.

Damascus, home to the military establishment and key leaders of the regime, was rocked by a suicide bombing that hit an army headquarters on Wednesday. CCTV footage released by the regime showed a car blowing up while it was being driven past the building.

The attack was claimed both by the Free Syria Army and a jihadist group. Rebel leaders in the capital later acknowledged that the strike had been a "collaborative" effort.

Despite the regime offensive, many businesses remain shut in Damascus and commercial life has ground to a halt in many districts.

The United Nations has said that it expects close to 700,000 refugees to have fled Syria and registered with it by the end of the year.

The overall figure is likely to be at least tens of thousands higher with many of those who have so far escaped to Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq not registering with international organisations.

Eastern Aleppo has largely emptied of residents. Turkish authorities say they are now dealing with up to 2,000 refugees every day.

SEE ALSO: Syria Is Looking At A Complete Free-For-All If The Assad Regime Falls >

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An famous souk in Aleppo, Syria was ravaged by fire today.

The 14th-century marketplace was a UNESCO world heritage site that lived on as a thriving market and tourist attraction. But up to a thousand shops are thought to have been destroyed in a fire started amid heavy fighting between government forces and the Aleppo rebels.

Now the souq, along with other UNESCO sites, may have been destroyed. We tracked down pictures of this once beautiful place.

The largest covered market in the world ...

The winding alleys of the ancient souq stretched over 13 kilometers

It was a favorite destination for tourists, but where locals shopped too

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Saudi-owned news agency Al Arabiya are touting a massive leak of Syrian intelligence documents, and their first leak alleges to show Russia was the one who ordered Syria take down the Turkish fighter jet in June, and for Syria to kill and dispose of the pilots.

Syria shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom in June, seemingly at random. Initial reports said the two pilots were recovered and in good health, but they never turned up. The plane was recovered in international waters, but the pilots weren't discovered until a few days later. Assad apologized for shooting down the plane and offering that he thought it was an Israeli jet as an excuse.

But according to Al Arabiya's leaked intelligence documents they received from Syrian rebels, that's not the whole story. Damascus' official intelligence documents allege Syria, working with Russia's naval base in Syria, shot down the fighter jet and Syrian Air Force officials recovered the pilots. Assad ordered the pilots be taken in as war prisoners and questioned over Turkey's role in helping the Free Syrian Army. But Russia intervened: 

A subsequently leaked file, also sent from the presidential palace and addressed to all heads of units of the Syrian foreign intelligence, reads: “Based on information and guidance from the Russian leadership comes a need to eliminate the two Turkish pilots detained by the Special Operations Unit in a natural way and their bodies need to be returned to the crash site in international waters.” 

Syria was also ordered to threaten Turkey with mobilizing the Kurdistan’s Workers Party on Turkey's borders if they thought about responding to the downed fighter jet. Russia ordered Assad apologize to try and court public opinion, but his idea of claiming he thought it was Israeli jet didn't really do that. 

SEE ALSO: Syrian Rebels Are In A Decisive Battle For Aleppo As The Regime Hits Back In Damascus >

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The Assad regime in Syria brought about Muammar Gaddafi's death by providing France with the key intelligence which led to the operation that killed him, sources in Libya have claimed.

French spies operating in Sirte, Gaddafi's last refuge, were able to set a trap for the Libyan dictator after obtaining his satellite telephone number from the Syrian government, they said.

In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told the Daily Telegraph.

With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Mr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi.

"In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime – which is what happened," Mr El Obeidi said.

While it was not possible independently to verify his allegation, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, played a leading role in both the Nato mission to bomb Libya and in bringing international pressure to bear on the Assad regime.

The claims by Mr El Obeidi, the former head of foreign intelligence for the movement that overthrew Gaddafi, followed comments by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime minister in the transitional government and now leads one of Libya's largest political parties. He confirmed over the weekend that a foreign "agent" was involved in the operation that killed Gaddafi.

He did not identify his nationality. However the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted Western diplomats in Tripoli as saying that if a foreign agent was involved "he was almost certainly French".

The news of the Syria deal could potentially embarrass Nato, which initially claimed that it did "not target individuals".

According to the alliance's official version, an RAF reconnaissance plane spotted a large convoy of vehicles trying to flee Sirte on Oct 20th last year, two months after Gaddafi fled Tripoli.

Nato warplanes then bombed the convoy, apparently unaware of who was travelling in it, before militia fighters later found Gaddafi hiding in a drainpipe. He is believed to have been killed by his captors en route to the city of Misurata, west of Sirte.

But Mr El Obeidi said that France had essentially masterminded the operation by directing Libyan militiamen to an ambush spot where they could intercept Gaddafi's convoy.

He also suggested that France had little interest in how Gaddafi was treated once captured, although the fighters were encouraged to try to take him alive.

"French intelligence played a direct role in the death of Gaddafi, including his killing," Mr El Obeidi said.

"They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn't care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive."

According to Mr El Obeidi, French intelligence began to monitor Gaddafi’s Iridium satellite telephone and made a vital breakthrough when he rang a senior loyalist, Yusuf Shakir and Ahmed Jibril, a Palestinian militant leader, in Syria.

As a result, they were able to pinpoint his location and monitor his movements. Although Turkish and British military intelligence officers – including the SAS – who were in Sirte at the time were informed of the ambush plans in advance they played no role in what was "an exclusive French operation", Mr El Obeidi said.

At the time of Gaddafi's death , Mr El Obeidi had fallen out of favour with the most powerful faction in Libya's transitional government because of his links with Gen Abdul Fatah Younes, a senior rebel commander killed by his own side in July last year.

Even so, he continued in his intelligence role in a semi-official but senior capacity.

Sources quoted by Corriere della Sera said one reason for the French lead in the operation was that then President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted Gaddafi dead after the Libyan leader openly threatened to reveal details of the large amounts of money he had donated to Sarkozy for his 2007 election campaign.

"Sarkozy had every reason to want to get rid of the colonel as quickly as possible," Western diplomats said, according to the newspaper.

A spokesman at the French foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the claims.

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Today, Iran's currency plummeted to an all-time low: 32,500 rial to the dollar. The hyperinflation is thought to be the result of oil sanctions that could lose the resource-rich nation $50 billion in revenue this year.

Yet reports coming out today say they also are giving billions to the Assad regime in Syria to help fund the civil war — up to $10 billion according to the Times of London.

Huh?

Throughout the brutal civil conflict in Syria, Iran has sided with the Assad regime — much to the chagrin of the international community — due to its ideological and religious ties. The Assad family are members of the Alawite faith, which is an off-shoot of the Shiite Islam that guides the Iran's Islamic Republic. Iran has confirmed they have troops on the ground in Syria. They've also been flying arms over Iraqi airspace (Iraq is now facing international pressure to stop shipments).

But you have to wonder if Iran's role in the Syrian winter may be cut short due to lack of funds.

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American reporter Austin Tice has been missing in Syria since mid-August. The 31-year-old Houston native had been reporting from the war-torn country for a variety of outlets, including McClatchy, The Washington Post and CBS News.

There's a great deal of concern about Tice's safety for obvious reasons, and Tice's friends, family and supporters may be heartened to see a video that apparently shows Tice alive was uploaded to YouTube last week.

However, the video may provide just as many questions as answers.

WATCH:

James Ball of the Washington Post reports that the video only came to widespread attention after it posted on Monday to a Facebook page associated with supporters of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The video appears to show Tice as a prisoner of Islamic rebels opposed to the Syrian regime, who call out "God is great" in Arabic during the video.

However, Ball spoke to a number of experts who cast doubt on the idea that the video showed Tice had been captured by Islamic rebels.

“It’s like a caricature of a jihadi group," Joseph Holliday of the DC-based group Institute for the Study of War told Ball. “My gut instinct is that regime security guys dressed up like a bunch of wahoos and dragged him around and released the video to scare the U.S. and others about the danger of al-Qaeda extremists in Syria. It would fit their narrative perfectly.”

Experts who spoke to McClatchy reporter Hannah Alam reached similar conclusions, and added that the video appeared to have been shot shortly after Tice was initially abducted. “There’s so much odd about it,” Will McCants of the Jihadica website told Alam. “There’s no production level, no title page, nothing to indicate it was an al Qaida group. This is just a raw clip of footage.”

Holliday's assessment would seem to fit with previous intelligence reports gathered by the Czech government for the US that suggested Tice had been detained by government forces (the Czech government, unlike the US is still operating an embassy in Damascus). The Syrian government denies having any knowledge of Tice's location.

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A Russian Major General who worked as a military advisor to the Syrian regime was killed by opposition forces in August, according to leaked documents published by Al-Arabiya. 

On Aug. 8 Moscow denied the report and had Vladimir Kuzheyev, a reserve general, go on TV to explain that he was "alive and well."

But Free Syrian Army claims that they killed Maj. Gen. Vladimir Kojève when they raided his car in Damascus, and gave Al-Arabiya a number of documents taken from his personal briefcase to prove it.

The channel, a leading news channel in the Arab world, said it has verified hundreds of documents given to them by the opposition and are in the process of disclosing those with substantial news value and political relevance.

In this case the documents include Kojève's Syrian ID card, which gave him full access to Syrian security institutions; a picture of Kojève's tinted Mazda Zoom, along with a special permission for him to tint the windows for "safety reasons"; and a request to go on vacation to Moscow that said it was in “accordance with the terms of the contract special to Russian military advisors in Syria.”

The request was sent to then-Army Chief of Staff Fahad Jassim al-Frei, who is now serving as Assad’s defense minister. 

SEE ALSO: Iran Confirms It Has Troops On The Ground In Syria >

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Dramatic developments are occurring in regards to the crisis and Civil War in Syria.

Earlier today, neighboring Turkey had said that mortars from Syria, which killed a mother and three children within Turkey, according to multiple reports. The situation has prompted a possible international crisis, as Turkey is a NATO member.

Now, Turkey has now retaliated directly.

Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a statement that Turkey has shelled selected targets in Syria.

"Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar," the statement said.

"Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security."

According to the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency, "Targets were shelled in locations identified by radar.”

The attacks on Turkey comes the same day as a series of bombings in Syria's largest city, Aleppo, killed at least 40 people.

The Turkish foreign minister has issued a formal complaint to the United Nations and its secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on the need for an emergency meeting of NATO members, the statement said.

This raises very interesting international global security issues.

If the U.S. was looking for an international legal justification for intervening in Syria, it may have just found one.

And even if not, they may be required to by international law.

Reuters reports that Turkey's foreign minister has contacted NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday after a mortar, which was fired from within Syria, killed a woman and four children in the southeastern Turkish city of Akçakale.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister — according to the Cihan news agency — stated that "Syria must be made to account for the incident and there must be a response under international law."

While the NATO charter explicitly states that "the Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means," Article 5 stipulates:

The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.

Russia has since urged NATO to refrain from interfering.

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After allegedly being hit by cross-border mortar strikes from Syria, Turkey has responded by shelling a number of key sites in Syria.

It's a tense situation, and despite claims from the US ("nothing to suggest it's going to become a broader conflict," one US official told CNN), many are worried about the prospect of a war.

Turks in particular seem keen to avoid conflict. Right now the top trending topic worldwide is #Savaşahayır, which roughly means "no to war" in Turkish (although not everyone is using it seriously).

Here's a selection of the top tweets in English at the time of writing:

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The UN Security Council President, Germany's Peter Wittig, is due to give a statement to reporters tonight.

Most people are assuming its a statement on the Syria/Turkey situation that happened a little earlier.

UPDATE: The statement was on the murder of 4 UN peacekeepers in Darfur today. Wittig was asked about the Syria/Turkey situation but said the Security Council had no statement to make at present, but more should be expected tomorrow.

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Turkey fired on Syrian targets for the second day Thursday after a shell fired from inside Syria killed five civilians and wounded at least 10 others in a Turkish border town, The Associated Press reports.

And Turkey's parliament passed a mandate during an emergency session that authorizes its military to send troops into Syria or for warplanes to strike Syrian targets whenever it deems it necessary, The Times of Israel reports.

The bill does not constitute a declaration of war but does enable the government freedom in deciding how to react to possible further escalation.

It calls for “a one-year-long permission to make the necessary arrangements for sending the Turkish Armed Forces” into Syria in light of the “negative impact of the ongoing crisis in Syria on our national security, as well as on regional stability and security.”

“Statements and declarations did not seem to do the work anymore, so Turkey feels compelled to act military, even if in a limited manner,” Turkish affairs expert Dr. Nimrod Goren told The Times of Israel.

Wednesday’s incident was the first in which Turkish civilians were killed as a consequence of the civil war raging in Syria.

Syria has apologized:

BREAKING: Turkey says Syria admits shelling Turkish village, apologizes for civilian deaths.

— The Associated Press (@AP) October 4, 2012

In June Turkey reinforced its border with anti-aircraft missiles and threatened to target any approaching Syrian military after Syrian forces shot down a Turkish fighter jet and killed its two pilots.

More than 90,000 Syrian refugees are currently living in camps along the border. The command headquarters of the opposition Free Syrian Army was in Turkey before being moved to Syria in September.

SEE ALSO: CONFIRMED: A Top Russian General Was Killed By Syrian Rebels While Advising Assad >

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Immediately after Syrian mortars killed five civilians in a Turkish border town on October 3, former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson stated that the incident "added a new edge to the campaign [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s Administration has been waging to convince its allies and friends that Syria is spinning out of control, increasingly threatening regional peace and stability, and warranting a firmer response."

Turkey responded to Wednesday's incident by shelling parts of Syria all night and passing a resolution that authorizes sending its military into Syria if necessary.

Wilson told Business Insider that he wasn't surprised Turkey sent its neighbor "a strong statement that they're not interested in seeing this happen in the future," but noted that Turkey shouldn't have to deal with the Syria problem alone—"NATO needs to do more to contain and isolate this problem as much as one can."

"The way it's seen in Turkey is that disorder [and] chaos are increasing weekly if not daily in Syria," Wilson, who served in Ankara from 2005 to 2008, said. "They are extremely worried about what the medium-to-longer term future is. Turkey can defend itself in this kind of border incident. Larger scale things [are] something else altogether and Turkey is seeking help."

According to Wilson, Turkey is primarily worried about three big issues:

1) Chemical weapons: "They seem dangerous enough to American national security officials, but to Turkey they're literally right across the border. It's not something far away that might come to bite at some point in the future. It's a very immediate and very real threat."

2) The rising al-Qaeda presence over the last six weeks: "To a certain extent, [Turkish leaders] know how to deal with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which was very much in the news two months ago operating in the far east of Syria. Al-Qaeda is a whole different set of problems and that alarms them."

3) The implosion of the Syrian government, which would lead to "chaos all over the country, hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing for their lives and the implications of that for Turkey and the region as a whole."

Wilson said that there are clear signs of increasing chaos: the Syrian government is losing parts of the country, senior military officers have defected, rebels have successfully attacked central government buildings and 90,000 Syrian refugees are currently living in Turkey.

"As far as Syria is concerned, clearly there needs to be some kind of transition [in the form of a interim government] there and it has to happen soon or the situation domestically is going to become something akin to that nightmare that the Turks are so concerned about," Wilson said.

That nightmare scenario would involve a collapse of central and military authority combined with the "loss of control of these frightening weapons that Assad and his father developed over the course of many years." The result would be "catastrophic flows of refugees [and] catastrophic numbers of people to feed and take care of medically" in addition to the destabilization of the entire region.

"It's already an extremely volatile part of the world—it could get a lot moreso and a lot more dangerous," Wilson said. "It could be very quickly or it could be sometime off in the future but it almost seems inevitable that some big change is going to happen in Syria."

That's why, Wilson told us, it is critical that NATO and its individual member states "make clear that's [Turkey's] security is an alliance concern" in addition to supporting "Jordan and ... others who are affected by this instability that ... ultimately may threaten the whole region."

He said the benefit of doing so is two-fold: it's a way to contain the instability while also ensuring that "NATO has a platform, i.e. Turkey, if and when at some point circumstances develop further in Syria in such a way that either intervention or some kind of operation on the edges of Syria or along its borders becomes necessary."

Wilson noted that world leaders have been wise to resist direct intervention in Syria, but that doesn't mean Turkey's allies "should be passive with respect to the overall situation. That's where I think NATO needs to pick up it's game."

When asked to speculate on what happens next, Wilson said that it's "almost an impossible question to answer," but did offer a broad take on the scenario:

"At some point it's likely that the [Syrian] government will either enter into some sort of transition on its own or it will collapse. Is that this winter? Is it later? I don't know. I think it's extremely difficult for Assad to put things back to the way they were, but when things will play our or exactly how I don't know."

One thing is certain: winter is coming. "It will be cold, people won't have food and what is already a deeply suffering country will be suffering quite a bit more," Wilson said.

SEE ALSO: Ex-CIA Analyst Tells Us The Real Reason Israel Wants To Strike Iran Before The US Election >

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On Oct. 3 four blasts rocked a government-controlled district in Aleppo, Syria, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 80.

Prof. Joshua Landis, director of the Center of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, provides an insightful commentary for the Reuters video of the aftermath in which he describes the plight of Syria's two major cities:

"What we're seeing now is the battle for Damascus and Aleppo. Aleppo is the great northern city of Syria. These two cities have 50 percent of Syria's population. They are the two geese that lay the golden eggs of Syria. Whoever owns those two sites own Syria."

"Blowing up the office buildings around it—and these are state buildings—is taking the fight to the state at the heart of Aleppo. There's a class element to this that we're seeing unfold in a city like Aleppo and that's that the rural, lower classes from the countryside are busting into these cities where all the money is and trying to dislodge these people who are willing to sit under the umbrella of regime security. And if that means burning up the downtown, ... taking the fight right to right to the city center—that's what they have to do."

"But the regime also cannot cede these cities to the opposition because … [then] in one piece the opposition will have all the money. [So] the logic, unfortunately, of this battle is that these two cities will be turned into dust. And that's, I fear, what we're watching unfold here in the fight for these two great urban centers."

SEE ALSO: FORMER AMBASSADOR: Syria Is 'Spinning Out Of Control' And The Turks Need Help >

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