BEIRUT – Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, have crossed into neighboring Lebanon in search of a refuge from the growing violence in their homeland, a Lebanese security official said Saturday.
Most arriving at the border came shortly after Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters across Syria on Friday. Syrian activists said 20 people were killed, including two children aged 12 and 13.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group tracking the Syria protests, said most of the deaths occurred in the Barzeh neighborhood of the capital, Damascus, and in the suburb of al-Kaswa. Others died when security forces opened fire in the central city of Homs, sending residents fleeing to the Lebanese border 20 miles (30 kilometers) away.
The Syrian opposition says some 1,400 people have been killed as the government has cracked down on a movement demanding an end to four decades of Assad family rule — a popular uprising renewed each Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.
The violence has prompted thousands of Syrians to seek a safe haven in neighboring countries. Up to 1,000 crossed Friday and overnight into northern Lebanon's Akkar region, near Wadi Khaled, a Lebanese security official said. Most crossed into the border village of Kneiseh from the Syrian village of al-Quseir, where Syrian activists said security forces fired on protesters Friday
At least six Syrians with gunshot wounds were among the arrivals, the Lebanese official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. The wounded were receiving treatment in Akkar hospitals.
The new arrivals join thousands of other Syrians who fled to Lebanon in May and early June, most during the Syrian military's crackdown on the border town of Talkalakh, a few minutes' walk from Lebanon's Wadi Khaled.
Unlike the earlier exodus, when the displaced Syrians camped out on the Lebanese side of the border, many new arrivals were staying with relatives or elsewhere in Beirut, the Lebanese official said.
The military's recent sweep through northwestern Syria, where armed resistance flared in early June, also has sent more than 11,700 refugees fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Turkey.
Defying government guns, thousands of Syrian protesters poured down city streets Friday to press demands for President Bashar Assad's ouster.
"Our revolution is strong! Assad has lost legitimacy!" a YouTube video showed protesters chanting Friday in Zabadani, a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
Such reports on the protests and violence are difficult to verify independently, since Syria has barred foreign correspondents from the country and restricted reporting by local journalists.
Syria's streets have become the stage for a test of endurance between a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement, bloodied but resilient, and an iron-fisted but embattled regime. The latest round of protests and killings came as international pressure mounted on President Bashar Assad.
"We will not stand by while the Syrian regime uses violent repression to silence its own people," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said after the European Union expanded sanctions — asset freezes and travel bans — to more members of the Syrian leadership.
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