NATO continues to hold emergency meetings on how to respond to the deadly battles between Turkish and Syrian forces on their shared border. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.By NBC News wire servicesUpdated at 11:42 a.m. ET: AKCAKALE, Turkey -- Turkey stepped up retaliatory artillery strikes on a Syrian border town on Thursday, killing several Syrian soldiers, while its parliament approved further military action in the event of another spillover of the Syrian conflict.
Seeking to unwind the most serious cross-border escalation in its 18-month-old crackdown on dissent, Damascus apologized through the United Nations for shelling that killed five civilians in southeast Turkey on Wednesday and said it would not happen again, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said.
Syria's staunch ally Russia said it had received assurances from Damascus that the mortar strike was a tragic accident.
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