Syria: UN Security Council condemns Aleppo bombings (VIDEO)
Syrian rebels make victory signs as they patrol a street in the town of Tal Abyad near the border with Turkey on October 5, 2012. Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan again warned Syria it would pay a big price for further attacks, two days after a deadly cross-border shelling.
The UN Security Council on Friday condemned the four suicide bombings that hit Aleppo earlier this week, killing scores.
The current president of the Security Council, Guatemala's UN Ambassador Gert Rosenthal, read a statement that expressed "deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the families of the victims of these heinous acts and to the people of Syria," according to the Associated Press.
The bombings occurred the same day as shells launched from Syria hit a Turkish border town, killing five Turkish nationals, including women and children. The council condemned the shelling on Thursday.
The AP also reported that Syria has pulled tanks and other military equipment away from the Turkish border, citing a Turkish official.
The Foreign Ministry official said the move was an effort on Syria's part to remove any "perception of threat," after Turkey retaliated to Wednesday's shelling by striking targets on the Syrian border.
Reports emerged later on Friday of yet more shells from Syria striking Turkey, according to television channels in Turkey. The BBC reported that Turkey's military returned fire across the border after Syrian shells hit the southern Hatay province on Friday afternoon. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Earlier on Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Syria that the two countries were "not far" from war, while speaking at a rally in Istanbul.
More on GlobalPost: Aleppo bombings kill as many as 40
Meanwhile, the Syrian government has reportedly launched a heavy assault on Homs, with warplanes and artillery, according to The New York Times.
"Some analysts suggested that the focus on big cities like Homs and Aleppo further north showed that the government was maintaining its focus on urban warfare rather than regional maneuvering," said The Times.
The BBC quoted activists calling the assault on Homs the worst shelling in months. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the UK-based pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said, "It seems like the regime has a limited window to use its warplanes, because it is throwing everything it can at the rebels in Homs."
Also on Friday, Syrian rebels claimed that they captured an air base outside Damascus, complete with a cache of missiles, according to Reuters. Rebel forces reportedly overran the base in the Eastern Gouta area on Thursday.
The Times said the video below reinforced the rebels claims, showing rebels in military uniforms in front of a military installation with black smoke spiraling up. The video is not independently verified.
More on GlobalPost: Did Syria's war just expand to Turkey?