Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: Turkey's munitions claim on Syria plane 'lies' - Damascus 
  
 The plane was searched at Ankara's airport for several hours before being allowed to leave 
  
 Syria has accused Turkey of lying over its claim that a Syria-bound plane forced to land in Ankara was carrying Russian-made defence equipment. 
  
 Syria's foreign ministry challenged Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who made the claim, to show publicly what had been seized. 
  
 Mr Erdogan said the jet was intercepted because of suspicions that Russia was breaching an arms embargo on Syria. 
  
 Russia also denied the aircraft had illegal cargo on board. 
  
 It said the interception by Turkish military jets had put the lives of the passengers - including 17 Russian nationals - "in danger". 
  
 Tensions were already high between Turkey and Syria, following the deaths of five Turkish civilians by shelling from across the border last week. 
  
 Turkey has returned fire, and on Wednesday its top military commander warned Ankara would respond with greater force if the shelling continued. 
  
 'Tip-off' 
  
 Continue reading the main story “ Start Quote The Turkish prime minister appears to be calculating that taking sides will stand him and the country in good stead with millions of Arabs who are angered by the Syrian government's continuing use of force against its own people” End Quote 
  
 On Thursday Syria's foreign ministry accused Mr Erdogan of lying "to justify his government's hostile attitude towards Syria", according to Syria's Sana state news agency. 
  
 "The plane's cargo was documented in detail on the bill of lading and the plane did not carry any illegal material or any weapons," the ministry said. 
  
 It urged Mr Erdogan to "show the equipment and ammunition at least to his people". 
  
 The Syrian Air Airbus A320, with about 30 passengers on board, was intercepted late on Wednesday by two Turkish fighters and escorted to Ankara's Esenboga airport. 
  
 Turkey said previously it had received an intelligence tip-off that it had illegal cargo on board. 
  
 Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Mr Erdogan said: "What [a Russian state-run arms manufacturer] was sending to the Syrian Defence Ministry was: equipment, materials, munitions." 
  
 "Relevant authorities are continuing their investigation." 
  
 An earlier translation of Mr Erdogan's comments quoted him as saying "ammunition" rather than "munitions". 
  
 Russia's state arms export agency Rosoboronexport said it had no information about the cargo and denied it had any connection with the flight or anything on board. 
  
 On Friday the Russian broadsheet Kommersant, quoting sources close to Russian arms exporters, reported that there were 12 crates containing parts for Syrian air defence radars on board. 
  
 Damaged ties 
  
 Mr Erdogan said the confiscated cargo was still being examined 
  
 The aircraft was allowed to leave Ankara in the early hours of Thursday. But Syrian Transport Minister Mahmoud Saeed accused Turkey of carrying out "air piracy" and breaking civil aviation agreements. 
  
 Turkey has already imposed an arms embargo on Syria, and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it was determined to stop any transfer of weapons to Syria through its airspace. 
  
 The foreign ministry said there was "no basis" for safety concerns and that "all measures were taken to ensure the safety of all passengers and to cater to their possible needs". 
  
 Since the uprising against Syria President Bashar al-Assad began last year, Russia has repeatedly refused to abandon its support for Damascus, while Turkey has been a vocal critic of the Assad government. 
  
 The BBC's James Reynolds, near the Syrian border in southern Turkey, says that despite taking opposite views, Ankara and Moscow have maintained a close relationship and continued to do business together. 
  
 This incident could be the biggest test of their ties since the conflict broke out, he adds. 
  
 In another sign of deteriorating relations, Turkish officials revealed on Thursday that Syria had stopped buying electricity from its neighbour last week. 
  
 In Syria itself, a huge explosion hit near a state security building in the centre of Damascus on Thursday. 
  
 State media said two people had been injured in the attack, which it blamed on "terrorists". 
  
 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist network, said 92 government soldiers had died on Thursday, reportedly the highest death toll for the Syrian army on a single day since the conflict began. ||||| Anti-regime activists say jihadist fighters linked to al-Qaida fought with rebels to capture a Syrian military air defense base near Aleppo. 
  
  
  
 Videos posted online Friday, apparently shot inside the base, indicate that a group called Jabhat al-Nusra participated in the overnight battle for the base. The videos show fighters inspecting lines of large missiles. 
  
  
  
 Jabhat al-Nusra, or the "front for the protection of the people of the Levant," is a jihadist group with links to al-Qaida. The group has claimed responsibility for a number of bombings since the start of the Syrian uprising. 
  
  
  
 Two Aleppo-based activists and Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also said Jabhat al-Nusra fought in the battle. 
  
  
  
 According to One of the activists, Mohammed Abu Omar, four rebels were killed in the overnight battle. 
  
  
  
 Syria is dotted with air defense bases built for use in possible wars with Israel. Rebels have stormed such bases before but have not succeeded in deploying their complex weapons. 
  
  
  
 The base's capture is sure to fuel fears that Islamic extremists are playing a greater role after nearly 19 months of unrest in Syria. Western powers cite their presence as a reason not to arm the rebels. 
  
  
  
 Turkey scrambles fighter jets to Syrian border 
  
  
  
 Meanwhile, Turkey scrambled two fighter planes to the border with Syria on Friday after a Syrian military helicopter bombed the Syrian border town of Azmarin, a Reuters witness said. 
  
  
  
 There has been intense fighting between rebels and Syrian government forces this week in Azmarin and neighboring towns, an area strongly opposed to President Bashar Assad's rule. 
  
  
  
 Shells fired onto the town from surrounding hills sent thick plumes of smoke and dust rising into the air during fighting on Thursday and a voice amplified through loudspeakers, audible from the village of Hacipasa in Turkey's Hatay province, called on rebel fighters to surrender, warning of an air assault. 
  
  
  
 Fighting along Turkey's 900-km (560-mile) border with Syria has repeatedly spilled over into Turkish territory in the past week, with the Turkish army responding in kind to gunfire and mortar shells fired from Syria. 
  
  
  
 Turkish Chief of Staff General Necdet Ozel said on Wednesday his troops would respond "with greater force" if the shells continued to land on Turkish soil, and parliament last week authorized the deployment of troops beyond Turkey, heightening fears that Syria's civil war would drag in regional powers. 
  
  
  
 Syrian opposition activists estimate more than 32,000 people have been killed since March 2011, when the uprising against Assad's regime began. ||||| BEIRUT Rebels battled to hold onto Syria's main north-south highway on Friday as government forces fought insurgents on several fronts across the country. 
  
 The rebels captured an air defense base east of Syria's biggest city, Aleppo, and government forces unleashed air strikes and artillery bombardments on the western city of Homs, activists said. 
  
 On the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkey scrambled two fighter jets after a Syrian military helicopter bombed the Syrian border town of Azmarin, the site of fierce fighting between rebels and government forces this week. 
  
 Tensions between Ankara and Damascus are worsening at a time when the 19-month-old conflict is intensifying with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough and growing concerns that the violence could spread across the Middle East. 
  
 The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a death toll for Thursday of more than 260 people, including civilians and combatants on both sides, as fighting raged in the capital and the north, west and east of the country. 
  
 It said 92 soldiers had been killed on Thursday, one of the highest daily tolls on the government side since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad broke out in March 2011. 
  
 The official SANA news agency also reported fighting nationwide and said dozens of rebels, which it called "mercenary terrorists", had been killed. 
  
 In Idlib, activists said opposition fighters captured about 400 soldiers and loyalist militiamen this week in Western Jisr al-Shoughour, a hilly agricultural area. 
  
 Photos released by the opposition showed dozens of uniformed soldiers sitting on the ground in what appeared to be a hangar. 
  
 "Around 400 loyalist troops have been captured. Many of them were poor conscripts who were let go. The more important officers are being interrogated," a rebel source said. 
  
 The reports could not be independently verified but they indicate an intensifying conflict, with the daily body counts of the past few weeks far exceeding previous months. 
  
 HIGHWAY HELL 
  
 The British-based Observatory, which has a network of monitors in Syria, reported fighting at a military barracks close to Maarat al-Nuaman, a town on the highway from Homs to Aleppo in the northwest. 
  
 Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub, has been contested since July and the rebel capture of Maarat al-Nuaman this week cut the main route for Assad's military to resupply and reinforce it. 
  
 Opposition sources said rebels on Thursday halted an armored army column at Khan Sheikhoun which had been sent from Hama to retake Maarat al-Nuaman, 70 km (40 miles) south of Aleppo. They also reported artillery barrages along the highway between Khan Sheikhoun and Maarat in the past 72 hours. 
  
 SANA said government forces were trying to clear Aleppo's Karm al-Jabal area of rebels on Friday. 
  
 More than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started out as a popular uprising against four decades of Assad family rule and domination by their Alawite sect and then spiraled into civil war. 
  
 Fighting has also spilled over its borders into Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, stoking fears that the war could drag in its neighbors. 
  
 Since Syrian bombardments hit Turkish villages last week, Ankara and Damascus have squared off militarily and rhetorically, with Turkey moving troops to the border and threatening to retaliate if there is further cross-border bloodshed. 
  
 Turkey infuriated Syria on Wednesday when it forced a passenger plane flying from Russia to Syria to land in Ankara. Turkish authorities said it was carrying Russian-made munitions for the Syrian army, a charge denied by Damascus and Moscow. 
  
 Turkey allows rebels sanctuary on its soil and has led calls, along with Western powers and Gulf Arab states, for Assad to step down. The Syrian president counts on the support of Russia and Iran. 
  
 Despite the bluster, most analysts believe that neither Syria nor Turkey want matters to get out of hand. The United States and European powers have also shown no desire to intervene militarily, despite much hand-wringing over the bloodshed. 
  
 HOMS UNDER FIRE AGAIN 
  
 Assad's forces also ramped up air strikes and artillery barrages against Homs on Friday, a day after they took heavy losses trying to overrun the rebel-held Khalidiya district, opposition activists said. 
  
 "There are 50 bodies of soldiers and shabbiha (militia) on the streets in Khalidiya and regime troops cannot retrieve them," said Ahmad Tarkawi, a local opposition leader. 
  
 "The situation remains tough. The regime is now using a multiple rings tactic to surround Homs." 
  
 Homs, 140 km (90 miles) north of Damascus, was the focus of world attention in February when a government siege pulverized rebel-held districts and killed hundreds of fighters and civilians. It is also a gateway to the mountains overlooking the Mediterranean, heartland of Assad's minority Alawite sect. 
  
 Video footage showed a six-storey building in Khalidiya flattened by an airstrike. 
  
 Shelling and aerial bombardments also hit Sunni Muslim towns near Homs to prevent rebels in the countryside from joining the battle for Homs, opposition activist Abu Yazan said. 
  
 Meanwhile, the refugee crisis grew ever more acute, with the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR saying that between 2,000 and 3,000 people were fleeing across borders every day from Syria. 
  
 The total number of refugees now stood at more than 340,000, Melissa Fleming, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said in Geneva. 
  
 "And now into the winter months, more and more of these people are going to be living in camp situations. So more and more of these people are going to be spending the winter in tents," she said. 
  
 (Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva, Jonathon Burch on the Turkish border and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Editing by Louise Ireland) ||||| At least 2 of the 12 French Islamists arrested in raids on Saturday were planning to join jihadists fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and to recruit others to do so, a French prosecutor said Thursday. Five of the 12, all born in France and between the ages of 19 and 25, were released Thursday, but seven were kept in detention as the counterterrorist police continued to investigate a cell of Islamists that tried to blow up a kosher grocery store last month in Paris and had munitions, bomb-making equipment and a list of Jewish organizations in their possession. The prosecutor, François Molins, who called the group “extremely dangerous,” said two of them had visited Egypt and Tunisia recently, and said of the grocery bomb, “The intent was to kill.” |||||
Output:
Syrian rebels, fighting alongside Islamist militants, captured a regime air defense base near Aleppo today after an overnight battle, Haaretz reports. The group, dubbed Jabhat al-Nusra, has ties to al-Qaeda, and has claimed responsibility for a number of bombings since the uprising began. Rebels were also fighting today to hold Syria's main northeastern highway, Reuters reports, while the government launched air strikes and artillery attacks in Homs. In other Syria news: Yesterday was reportedly the bloodiest yet for regime forces, with as many as 92 soldiers killed. It was a fairly bloody day for everyone else as well, with more than 260 estimated killed nationwide. France has revealed that two of the 12 Islamists it arrested last weekend were allegedly planning to join jihadist groups in Syria, the New York Times reports. The incident echoes Britain's arrest of two alleged extremists who had helped the rebels. The Syrian regime is vigorously denying Turkey's accusation that there was Russian-made weaponry hidden aboard a passenger plane intercepted yesterday, the BBC reports. They said Turkey had invented the weapons "to justify his government's hostile attitude towards Syria." He called on Turkey to produce the weapons. Russia has denied the report as well, and is pressing Turkey for details, the New York Times reports.