Turkey, Syria exchange fire

Turkey has bombarded Syrian army positions for a sixth day in a row in response to what Turkish officials say is a new Syrian artillery strike on a border town.

For almost a week now, Turkish and Syrian forces have been exchanging fire.

Reports say Turkish troops have orders to respond to all cross border attacks, since shelling from the Syrian side killed five Turkish civilians, including a mother and her three children, last Wednesday.

Turkey's president Abdullah Gul wants the international community to do more: “Our government is in constant consultations with the Turkish general staff. What needs to be done is being done and that will continue. We cannot expect the situation to go on in Syria, we cannot,” he said.

The latest cross border exchanges came as the head of the main opposition Syrian National Council entered Syrian territory for the first time since assuming his position back in June.

Abdel Basset Sayda told Arab TV: "The regime is on the verge of total collapse. It has lost control. Most Syrians are calling for its departure, but it manages to survive because of the support it gets from Iran and Russia."

A monitoring group has revised up the number of civilians killed in the conflict so far to more than 32,000 people - 1000 of those, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights - died in just the last week.

Listen to Nathan Morley's report: