"[T]he onus rests squarely on the Assad regime," Mark Toner, US State Department spokesman said in a daily press briefing on Wednesday, when asked about remarks of US Army Commander of Europe Mark Hertling who said last week that the US is not sure if shelling of Turkey's Akçakale district that killed five Turkish citizens are from the Syrian army, from Syrian opposition fighters who want to get Turkey involved in the issue, or from the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Toner said the State Department was clear on this issue that the Syrian government and military escalated border tensions and all the escalation of violence, the onus rests squarely on the Assad regime.

"We wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for Assad's brutal crackdown of a largely peaceful opposition to the government," Toner said, adding that eventually "we saw these Syrian citizens take up arms against the government and the military as a result of the crackdown to defend their homes and families, but let's be very clear that it's Assad and his regime that bear responsibility here."

/Trend/