As Turkey sought to increase its military presence along its border with Syria, opposition fighters in Syria were waging an offensive Tuesday, October 9 to seize a strategic city in Idlib province, The Los Angeles Times reported. The offensive led to some of the most intense government air attacks on the city of Maarat Numan to date and left more than 60 people dead, at least 40 of them civilians. They were among at least 115 people killed across the country Tuesday. The clashes and government airstrikes came as NATO said Tuesday that it has plans in place to defend Turkey if necessary after almost a week of cross-border shelling by the two countries. Last week, five Turks were killed when a Syrian mortar round landed in a Turkish town. On Monday, Turkey sent 25 fighter jets to an air base near the border.