Annan to Visit Syrian Refugees in Turkey Tuesday

The international mediator for Syria, Kofi Annan, was due in Turkey Tuesday for a visit to Syrian refugee camps near the border, a Turkish diplomatic source said Monday.

"The visit will only last a few hours, ahead of Annan's trip to Iran," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The former U.N. chief is expected in Tehran on Wednesday.

Around 25,000 Syrian refugees are currently housed in camps in Turkey's three provinces bordering Syria, where civilians have been fleeing deadly repression of pro-democracy protests for more than a year.

Annan, the top mediator for the United Nations and the Arab League, has brokered a deal whereby Syrian troops should withdraw from protest cities by Tuesday, with a complete end to fighting set for 48 hours later.

U.S. senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, who are due to hold talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Ankara Monday, are also expected to visit refugees in the Hatay province on Tuesday, the diplomatic source said.

"An unfair fight is going on. With tanks and artillery, Bashar Assad is going around city to city and committing massacres of his own people," McCain told AFP in an interview last month.

"They deserve our assistance and international assistance to fight back," he said, urging the world to up the pressure on the Damascus regime.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once an ally of Assad, has threatened to take action should Damascus fail to comply with the Annan plan.

The Milliyet newspaper reported Monday that Turkey would consider using troops to secure humanitarian corridors in border areas should the number of Syrian refugees swell to above 50,000.

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed since anti-regime protests broke out in March 2011, while monitors put the number at more than 10,000.