GUVECCI, Turkey – Syrian army units were poised to sweep into another northern town on Wednesday to crush anti-government protests, sending residents running for their lives as Bashar Assad's regime sought to control the spectacle of thousands of terrified refugees streaming across the border into Turkey.
Maj. Gen. Riad Haddad, head of the military's political department, said tanks surrounding the northern town of Maaret al-Numan had not entered "yet" — suggesting they were readying an operation there. Activists said hundreds of residents were fleeing the town Wednesday.
Haddad also confirmed witness accounts that army units were surrounding the eastern town of al-Boukamal, near the Iraqi frontier, saying the deployment was "to protect the borders." The area was a smuggling route for insurgents and weapons into Iraq in the 2000s, and Syrian officials worry about a reverse flow of arms into Syria.
Facing the most serious threat to his family's 40-year ruling dynasty, President Assad has unleashed his military to seal off strategic areas in the north and east — including the town of Jisr al-Shughour, which was spinning out of government control before the military moved in on Sunday.
Syrian tanks and the government's most loyal troops have been trying to snuff out any chance that the 12-week uprising could gain a base for a wider armed rebellion against Assad.
Some 8,000 Syrians have already sought refuge in camps in neighboring Turkey during the latest military crackdown, which authorities said was necessary to get rid of "armed terrorists." The government blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists are behind it — not true reform-seekers.
Human rights activists say more than 1,400 Syrians have died and some 10,000 have been detained in the government suppression of the 3-month-old uprising, which was inspired by revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.
Assad initially responded with vague promises of reform, but the increasingly deadly crackdown has only added fuel to the movement that now says it will settle for nothing less than Assad's ouster.
The thousands of refugees in Turkey have been highly embarrassing to Damascus, and Haddad claimed "gunmen" were "intimidating people into fleeing" Syria.
Syrian Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud called on residents of Jisr al-Shughour to return, saying security, electricity, water and communications have been restored and the area is now safe. An Associated Press reporter on a government-organized trip to Jisr al-Shughour saw vans packed with families and their belongings, apparently returning to their homes.
But refugees who spoke to The AP in Turkey on Wednesday placed blame squarely on the government and its army units and pro-regime militias known as "shabiha."
"You ruined us, Bashar!" refugees shouted in Arabic on Wednesday at a camp in Turkey. "Just leave!"
The Turkish government has largely prevented access to the camps, saying it wants to protect the refugees' privacy. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has accused Assad's regime of "savagery," but also said he would reach out to the Syrian leader to help solve the crisis.
A special Syrian government envoy, Hassan Turkmani, flew to Ankara and told reporters on arrival Wednesday he would take up the two countries' relations during talks with Erdogan. Asked about the refugees, Turkmani said the Syrians would be "hosted" in Turkey for a short while, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported.
Information Minister Mahmoud said after a Cabinet meeting late Tuesday that the government had tasked the Syrian Red Crescent Society with coordinating with Turkish authorities to guarantee the return of refugees.
Meanwhile, thousands of Assad supporters staged a massive pro-regime demonstration in the capital, Damascus, carrying pictures of the president and chanting, "The people want Bashar Assad!" Syrian TV said the demonstration expressed "Syrian national unity and Syria's rejection of foreign interference in its internal affairs."
Gen. Haddad, meanwhile, denied widespread witness accounts that elite Syrian troops led by Assad's brother, Maher, had been involved in the northern operation.
The rare briefing by a military official signaled Syria was going out of its way to refurbish its image and deny signs of cracks within the military. Haddad said armed forces were "coherent and carry out all tasks entrusted to them."
The government has found support from Russia, whose foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said no state would be "tolerant of attempts to organize and direct a revolt," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported Wednesday. Although Lavrov said Russia insists on reforms in Syria, Moscow opposes any strong U.N. Security Council condemnation of the Syrian crackdown, as proposed by Britain, France and the U.S.
In Geneva, meanwhile, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, called for an investigation of alleged Syrian abuses of anti-government protesters, citing information about "acts of torture and other cruel and inhuman treatment."
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Karam reported from Beirut.
Associated Press Writer Albert Aji in Jisr al-Shughour contributed to this report.
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Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram
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