UK's the independent: "Turkey planning buffer zone in Syria to prevent refugee crisis"

Watching hundreds of refugees pouring from Syria across the northern border of Lebanon, and fearing a repeat of the great Iraqi Kurdish refugee push in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, Ankara has drawn up secret plans for a "safe area" for refugees inside Syria, claimed a story in UK's The Independent yesterday. To prevent thousands of Syrian Kurds from moving into Turkey's southeast, Turkish generals have prepared an operation to send several battalions of Turkish troops to create this safe haven, reported journalist Robert Fisk. Fisk added that Turkey is prepared to advance "well beyond the Syrian border town of Al Qamishli" to provide the safe zone.