Syrian clashes erupt ahead of ceasefire Turkey warned the UN on Friday that it might need help if the flow of refugees from Syria continued at its current rate. After speaking to Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, said the refugee issue was becoming an "international problem." Some 2,800 Syrians have crossed the border into Turkey in 36 hours, with the total number seeking sanctuary now nearing 24,000. The UN estimates more than 9,000 people have died in the year-long uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. On Friday, just five days before the UN hopes a full ceasefire will come into effect, Syrian troops and rebels were engaged in heavy fighting across the country. Security forces loyal to the regime intensified their year-long military assault on civilian opposition strongholds as the UN and Arab League ceasefire deadline approached. At least 31 people were reportedly killed across Syria on Friday, three of whom were rebel fighters, with the total number of fatalities expected to rise. Syria has reportedly agreed to abide by a six-point plan produced by Kofi Annan, UN and Arab League special envoy, which requires a ceasefire by 6am on Tuesday. But Damascus has yet to fully publicly embrace the plan and has suggested it will only halt operations when it has pacified opposition strongholds. Col Malik al-Kurdi, number two in the rebel Syrian Free Army, told al-Jazeera television that it would cease fire if the regime halted its military operations. Opposition activists described a series of heavy offensives targeting the restive eastern suburbs of Damascus as well as cities across the country on a day of street protests following weekly communal prayers. Protests erupted in the Arbaeen district of the capital, in Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Deir Azzour, Lattakia, Dara'a, Idleb and the Damascus suburb of Harasta, according to video footage posted to the internet. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria, an activist network, cited reports of shelling of the Damascus suburbs of Doumair and heavy gunfire at protests in cities and towns across the country. Video footage posted on the internet showed plumes of smoke rising in Homs and artillery rounds ringing out in the suburbs of Damascus. Refugees arriving in Turkey describe random shooting by soldiers, clashes between lightly armed members of the rebel Free Syrian Army and the regime's security forces, tank and helicopter fire, scores dead and bodies and homes burnt. After they went away, tanks enter villages and they bomb everywhere," a refugee told the semi-official Anatolia news agency. While Turkey has previously warned it might set up a buffer zone inside Syria in the event of a huge refugee influx, some officials have recently signalled they are cooling on the idea, which could need to be enforced by troops and air power against a hostile Syrian military. Nevertheless Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, has kept up a steady stream of criticism of Mr Assad, his former ally. In addition to occasional clashes between Lebanese factions allied with and opposed to the Assad regime, a gunmen on Wednesday allegedly attempted to assassinate Samir Geagea, one of the country's leading Christian leaders and long-time Damascus opponent.