BEIRUT — Syria's president said in an interview broadcast Friday that his country is not in a state of civil war, and that he has no regrets about any decisions he has made since the uprising against him began nearly 20 months ago.

Instead of civil war, Assad said, Syria is facing "terrorism through proxies," referring to foreign backing of the rebellion against his regime.

In a sign of relentless ferocity of the conflict, a surge of more than 5,000 Syrians crossed into Turkey overnight to flee violence, a Turkish official at the government's crisis management center said Friday. The new exodus raises to 120,000 the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.