By Fulya Ozerkan

ANKARA, Mar 08, 2012 (AFP) - Hundreds of Syrian refugees have fled across the border into Turkey fearing a government's military offensive to oust rebel fighters from a province near the border, an official source said on Thursday.

A total of 11,876 Syrians have crossed into Turkey to escape President Bashar al-Assad's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests since the uprising erupted in March last year, a foreign ministry official told AFP.

The figure stood at around 9,000 just a month and a half ago, the official, who declined to be named, added.

The recent influx comes amid growing concerns that Idlib, a mountainous province near the Turkish border, could suffer the same fate as Baba Amr which was stormed by government troops on March 1 after a month-long blitz.

"We've been receiving news that after the Baba Amr assault, Syrian tanks and artillery are heading toward the northwestern province of Idlib," an area controlled by Free Syrian Army fighters, the official said.

Idlib is considered important because of the presence of a large number of Free Syrian Army members, particularly in the Japal al-Zawiya area.

Frightened by the possibility of an operation in Idlib, many Syrians have crossed the border, the official noted.

"Around 800 Syrians made their way to Turkey over the last week and 2,500 people over the last month," he added. "This is a dramatic increase."

The refugees are mainly housed in camps in Hatay near the Syrian border, where members of the Free Syrian Army, made up of deserters from the Syrian security forces, are also based.

With the deepening crisis in Syria, Turkish authorities are readying themselves for a worst-case scenario involving the mass arrival of refugees.

The ministry official said if the number continued to grow, the camps in Hatay would not be sufficient to house all the refugees.

"We are now establishing a container city in Kilis, 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the Hatay province," he said.

The government initially plans to transfer some 10,000 refugees from the camps in Hatay to the container city in Kilis which will be made up of prefabricated houses.

Other refugees will stay in Hatay, along with new arrivals, the official said.

Turkey, which shares a 910-kilometre (560-mile) border with Syria, broke its former alliance with Damascus over the regime's brutal crackdown against opposition protesters which has left amost 8,500 people dead according to monitoring groups.

Government officials have pledged not turn away Syrian refugees fleeing the unrest.

"Our doors are open to all Syrians fleeing," Foreign Ministry Ahmet Davutoglu said last month.

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