EU bans imports of Syrian oil over crackdown (AP)

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press – 5 mins ago

BEIRUT – The European Union banned oil imports from Syria on Friday in a move that will cost the embattled regime millions of dollars each day as it uses deadly force to try to crush a 5-month-old uprising. The same day, activists said, at least six people were killed in the crackdown.

The deaths came as President Bashar Assad's security forces fired on thousands of anti-government protesters and surrounded mosques in southern and eastern cities to prevent worshippers from streaming into the streets to join the rallies, activists said. The U.N. estimates some 2,200 people have been killed since March as protesters face a barrage of shells and sniper fire.

The regime is in no imminent danger of collapse, but the protesters are determined, leading to concerns violence could escalate.

On Friday, Syrian protesters marched under the slogan "Death Rather Than Humiliation."

The EU oil ban follows other international sanctions and blistering worldwide condemnation. The EU ban covers the purchase, import and transport of oil and other petroleum products from Syria. The EU also has banned European banks from opening credit lines for such sales, and prohibited insurance companies from insuring the cargos.

In addition to the oil ban, four more Syrian individuals and three entities were added to a list of those facing an EU asset freeze and travel ban.

Over the past few months, the EU has imposed travel bans and asset freezes against 35 Syrian government officials and military and police commanders, including Assad himself.

Syria exports some 150,000 barrels of oil per day, generating $7 million to $8 million daily, according to David Schenker, director of the Program on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The vast majority of that oil goes to the European Union.

Without that revenue, Syria will likely burn through foreign reserves far more quickly. It had $17 billion in reserves at the start of the uprising. Still, some analysts believe Syria is getting financial assistance from Iran, which would cushion the EU blow.

Syria gets about 28 percent of its revenue from the oil trade and sells fuel to France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The EU has in the past been reluctant to ban Syrian oil and gas imports for fear of the impact on the Syrian public and small businesses.

The EU oil embargo will bring the 27-nation bloc in line with the latest U.S. moves to isolate Assad's regime, including a ban on the import of petroleum or related products.

In Poland, foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told The Associated Press that the embargo is taking effect on Saturday. He said that EU foreign ministers meeting in the Baltic Sea resort of Sopot, in Poland, were to discuss the situation in Syria later Friday.

Some EU nations have been lobbying for other sectors to be added to the sanctions regime, including telecommunications and banking.

Recent weeks have seen a subtle change in tone among some activists, who are calling on Syrians to take up arms and inviting foreign military action like the intervention that helped topple the government of Libya.

"The possibility of conflict in Syria entering a new phase is becoming more likely following almost six months of largely peaceful protests ... and growing external pressure," according to a briefing by Maplecroft, a British-based risk analysis company.

Syrian troops fanned out Friday in cities including Daraa in the south and the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria has banned foreign journalists and restricted local coverage, making it difficult to independently confirm events on the ground.

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AP Writer Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

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Syrian forces kill 3 as tanks enter coastal city (Reuters)

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian troops killed three people as tanks swept into a coastal city on Saturday, activists said, in a crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad which drew criticism from an international Muslim group.

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation, adding its voice to growing Arab pressure on Assad, called for an immediate halt to the military campaign against protesters which activists say has killed 1,700 civilians in five months.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah repeated their calls for the crackdown to stop.

Obama also spoke to British Prime Minister David Cameron and the leaders called for an immediate end to attacks by Syrian government forces against protesters, the White House said. It said Obama and Cameron would "consult on further steps in the days ahead." [nN1E77C03V]

Saturday's bloodshed came a day after security forces shot dead 20 people during nationwide marches in which demonstrators called for Assad's overthrow and vowed they would "kneel only to God."

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two people were killed and 15 wounded in heavy gunfire after around 20 military vehicles entered the Ramle district of Latakia, on the Mediterranean coast.

Soldiers backed by loyalist militia known as shabbiha were also deployed in the city's Sulaiba district, the group's head Rami Abdel Rahman said. "They are arresting dozens of people," he said, adding many people were fleeing the assault.

Troops and shabbiha killed one person in the town of Qusair, near the Lebanese border, and made arrests in nearby Jousiyah village, he said. The bodies of four people arrested during an assault last week in the Houla Plain, north of Homs city, were returned to their families, he added.

Syria has barred most independent media, making it hard to verify events on the ground in the unrest, one of a series of popular revolts against autocratic Arab leaders this year.

Authorities deny reports of deaths in detention and say 500 soldiers and police have been killed by armed groups they blame for the violence. State news agency SANA said three members of the security forces were killed in Friday's protests.

Since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in early August, Assad has stepped up the military campaign, launching army assaults on the central city of Hama and the city of Deir al-Zor in the eastern Sunni Muslim tribal heartland. Assad's family, which has ruled Syria for 41 years, is from the minority Alawite sect.

After a wave of Arab criticism of Damascus last week, the Saudi Arabia-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) accused Syria on Saturday of using "excessive armed force" and called on Damascus to stop the bloodshed.

OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged Assad "to exercise utmost restraint through the immediate halt to the use of force to suppress popular demonstrations."

Obama and King Abdullah spoke by telephone on Saturday and "agreed that the Syrian regime's brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately," the White House said, adding the two leaders agreed to consult closely.

The Saudi monarch, who has had fraught relations with Assad but had worked with him to reduce tension in Lebanon last year, recalled his ambassador from Damascus on Monday.

France's Foreign Ministry advised citizens against traveling to Syria and urged any French people still in the country to leave using available commercial transport. Its website cited the "aggravation of tensions."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday Syria would be better off without Assad and called on nations that buy oil or sell arms to Syria to cut those ties.

"We urge those countries still buying Syrian oil or gas, those countries still sending Assad weapons, those countries whose political and economic support give him comfort in his brutality, to get on the right side of history," she said.

Syria's oil industry, with which the Assad family has close links, generates most of the state's hard currency from crude output of 380,000 barrels per day.

While Syria exports crude oil, its refinery capacity is not sufficient to meet domestic demand for fuel. Trading sources said Swiss oil traders Vitol and Trafigura agreed to supply state firm Sytrol with 60,000 tonnes of gasoline this week.

The global campaign group Avaaz urged European nations on Friday to impose immediate restrictions on purchases of Syrian oil to "dry up" funding of Assad's forces. It said more than 150,000 Avaaz members had signed a petition to that effect.

On Wednesday, Washington imposed sanctions on Syria's largest bank and its biggest mobile telephone company, controlled by Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf. The next day, U.S. Ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford said more sanctions would follow unless the Syrian authorities halted the violence.

(Additional reporting by Alister Bull in Washington and Nick Vinocur in Paris; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Syrian tanks pound city as Arab states withdraw envoys (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pressed on with a tank onslaught against a city Monday, but was plunged deeper into international isolation by Arab neighbors who denounced his violent crackdown and recalled their envoys from Damascus.

Assad's five-month campaign against street protests has emerged as one of the bloodiest episodes of the wave of democratic revolutions sweeping the Arab world this year. Killings have worsened sharply in the past week after Assad ordered tank assaults on two cities.

Other Arab leaders had been cautious about criticizing one of their peers, but Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah broke the silence with a rare intervention overnight, demanding an end to the bloodshed and recalling the Saudi ambassador from Damascus.

Hours later Kuwait and Bahrain recalled their envoys too.

Syrian tanks and troops poured into the eastern Sunni city of Deir al-Zor in the latest stage of a campaign to crush centers of protest against 41 years of Assad family rule.

"Armored vehicles are shelling the al-Hawiqa district heavily with their guns. Private hospitals are closed and people are afraid to send the wounded to state facilities because they are infested with secret police," Mohammad, a Deir al-Zor resident who did not want to give his full name.

He said at least 65 people had been killed since tanks and Armored vehicles barreled into the provincial capital, 400 km (250 miles) northeast of Damascus, Sunday, crumpling makeshift barricades and opening fire.

Later Monday Assad fired defense minister Ali Habib and replaced him with chief of staff General Daoud Rajha. The state news agency said Habib was ill. Habib had been added to an EU sanctions list last week for his role in crushing protests.

Syria's military is effectively under the command of Assad's brother Maher. Many officers are from the Assad family's minority Alawite sect.

The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said among those killed were a mother and her two children, an elderly woman and a young girl. Syria has expelled most independent media since the uprising began, making it hard to confirm accounts.

FEW FRIENDS LEFT

The sudden withdrawal of ambassadors of Gulf Arab states leaves Assad with few diplomatic friends. Western states have imposed sanctions on top Syrian officials and countries with close ties to Damascus such as Russia and Turkey have warned Assad he is running out of time.

Nevertheless, countries have not proposed military action like that ranged against Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Assad's forces shot dead at least three mourners Monday when they opened fire at a funeral for a pro-democracy protester in the southern border city of Deraa, cradle of the five month uprising, witnesses and activists said.

Rami Abdulrahman of the Syrian Observatory said one of the dead was Maen Yousef Awadat, a leading political campaigner, who had recently been released from prison.

The funeral was for a youth arrested earlier this week when he took part street protests after nightly Ramadan prayers. His body was handed to relatives earlier Monday with signs of torture, according to relatives contacted in Deraa.

The Saudi criticism was the sharpest the oil giant has directed against any fellow Arab state since uprisings began to sweep the region, toppling autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt, kindling civil war in Libya and rattling elites.

"What is happening in Syria is not acceptable for Saudi Arabia," the Saudi king said in a written statement read out on Al Arabiya satellite television. "Syria should think wisely before it's too late and issue and enact reforms that are not merely promises but actual reforms."

"Either it chooses wisdom on its own or it will be pulled down into the depths of turmoil and loss."

SHELLING AND GUNFIRE

The assault on Deir al-Zor, in an oil-producing province bordering Iraq, took place a week after tanks stormed the city of Hama, where residents say scores have been killed.

The official SANA news agency said Monday the military was winding down in Hama. Residents said there were still tanks in parts of the city and security forces were making arrests. The Observatory said 1,500 people had been arrested in Hama's Jarajima neighborhood and troops killed three civilians.

Like most of Syria, Hama and Deir al-Zor are mainly-Sunni cities, and the crackdowns there resonate with Sunnis, who form the majority in the region and rule most Arab countries.

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

The Arab League called for an end to the bloodshed. France and Germany repeated calls for Assad to scrap the military campaign which rights groups say has killed at least 1,600 civilians.

Saudi Arabia's decision to join countries putting pressure on Assad was unlikely to deter the 45-year old president, who calls the clampdown a national duty, regional experts said.

Relations between Sunni Saudi Arabia and a Syrian ruling elite from Assad's minority Alawite sect have been tense since the assassination in 2005 of Rafik al-Hariri, a Western-backed Lebanese Sunni statesman who also had Saudi nationality.

In Cairo, the head of the most influential school of Sunni Islam, al-Azhar, described the violence as a human tragedy that had to stop. "Blood only fuels the fires of revolutions," said Grand Imam Ahmed el-Tayeb.

Hama is known throughout the region as the site of a crackdown by Assad's father nearly 30 years ago against Sunni Islamists in which many thousands died.

AUTHORITIES DENY CITY ATTACKED

Syrian authorities denied that any Deir al-Zor assault had taken place. The official state news agency said "not a single tank has entered Deir al-Zor" and reports of tanks in the city were "the work of provocateur satellite channels."

Syrian authorities say they have faced attacks since the protests erupted in March, blaming armed saboteurs for civilian deaths and accusing them of killing 500 security personnel.

State television broadcast footage Sunday of mutilated bodies floating in the Orontes river in Hama, saying 17 police had been ambushed and killed in the central Syrian city.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who cultivated close ties with Assad but has sharply criticised the crackdown, said Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu would visit Syria Tuesday.

"Our message will be decisively delivered," he said, drawing a rebuke from an Assad adviser, who described the Turkish statement as unbalanced.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to Davutoglu Sunday, the State Department said, asking him to "reinforce" Washington's position that Syria must immediately return its military to barracks and release prisoners.

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Brian Love in Paris, Brian Rohan in Berlin, Asma al-Sharif in Jeddah, Mahmoud Harby in Kuwait and Ayman Samir in Cairo; Editing by Dominic Evans and Peter Graff)

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Residents: Syrian forces in border city

Lebanese and Syrian anti-Assad demonstrators protest in the Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday.Zabadani residents had held protests calling for Assad's ousterResident: Troops round up people indiscriminatelyOn Saturday, hundreds of Syrian exiles gathered in Turkey to show unityHillary Clinton expresses support for the opposition

(CNN) -- Syrian forces moved into a city near the Lebanese border Sunday, detaining dozens of people, residents said.

Tanks rumbled in before dawn into Zabadani, about 25 miles north of Damascus.Residents of the city had called for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in several demonstrations since anti-government protests took hold of the country four months ago.

One resident, who did not want his name used for fear of reprisal, said troops rounded up people indiscriminately -- including several who were waiting by the side of a street to go to work.

The troops then set up checkpoints around the city. People, he said, are afraid to leave their homes.

Another said phone services and electricity to the city has been cut off. He too confirmed the raids and the detentions.

On Saturday, hundreds of exiled Syrian activists met in Istanbul and elected a 25-member council as they sought to declare unity in their intention to oust Assad.

The National Salvation Council, composed of independents, liberals, Islamists and members of other parties, will serve as an umbrella organization representing various factions of the Syrian opposition -- sometimes seen as fractured in their demands.

"Bashar al-Assad is finished," said Haitham al-Maleh, a political prisoner who was released from jail in March in an attempt to appease protesters. "He must leave the country, leave the power. We want to build our government, our regime, without them.

"We will move together to be one opposition ... because you know we spent 50 years under a dictatorship," he said. "The civil society in Syria is finished. Now we are building ourselves for the future."

The Syrian National Salvation conference -- attended by about 350 opposition members -- unfolded as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was also in Istanbul for meetings with Turkish officials, expressed support for the opposition.

"What's happening in Syria is very uncertain and troubling, because many of us had hoped that President Assad would make the reforms that were necessary without seeing what we're now seeing in the streets of Syria, which are government tanks and soldiers shooting peaceful demonstrators," she said.

"There must be a legitimate, sincere effort with the opposition to try to make changes," she said. "I don't know whether that will happen or not."

Some opposition members were frustrated at what they perceived as a lack of response from the international community and hoped that a united Syrian opposition would ratchet up pressure on al-Assad.

"The international community seems to be still dancing around the issue of the Assad regime losing legitimacy and that could be due to a number of reasons," said M. Yaser Tabbara, a Syrian-American human rights lawyer.

"I think what we're trying to do is send these reassurances to the international community that a credible, competent council or body is being formed, and that we do not have to worry anymore about a vacuum of power or a vacuum for an alternative."

He said the Syrian opposition wants world powers to choke the regime economically, politically and diplomatically "to achieve a point of no return."

A similar opposition meeting was to have taken place in Damascus but because of violence Friday, the meeting was canceled. However, two prominent activists were able to connect to Istanbul via Skype and telephone.

But despite efforts to maintain a united front, there was disagreement still over whether to push for the ouster of al-Assad or to work to promote reforms within the current framework. And a banner that read the "Syrian Arab Republic" drew the ire of the Kurdish delegation for the inclusion of the word, Arab.

Also Saturday, at least one person was killed when Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters in the eastern town of Albu Kamal, according to the activist group Local Coordination Committees in Syria.

State television said, however, that "armed groups" attacked a police station, a mayor's home and other government sites in Albu Kamal and that two policeman was killed. It said a number of guards were injured.

At least 21 civilians and one soldier were killed Friday in demonstrations. Sixteen of the fatalities occurred in Damascus and its suburbs, one in Homs, three in Idlib and one in Daraa, said Rami Abelrahman, director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Videos that allegedly showed the funeral processions for those killed were posted Saturday on Facebook pages belonging to Syrian activists. They showed people marching on the streets, carrying coffins and chanting slogans against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Protesters echoed the demands for reforms that they have voiced for months.

CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali, Yesim Comert and Mohammed Jamjoom contributed to this report.

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Syrian forces shoot dead 10 in Hama (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad shot dead 10 people on Tuesday in the Syrian city of Hama, activists said, and France called on the United Nations to adopt a firm stance in the face of "ferocious armed repression."

Tanks were still surrounding Hama, days after it witnessed some of the biggest protests against Assad's rule since a 14-week uprising erupted in March.

The attacks focused on two districts north of the Orontes River, which splits the city of 650,000 people in half. Residents said the dead included two brothers, Baha and Khaled al-Nahar, who were killed at a roundabout.

Troops raided towns to the northwest of Hama near the border with Turkey in Idlib province, and authorities intensified a campaign of arrests that has resulted in the detention of at least 500 people across Syria in the last few days, rights campaigners said.

In the eastern provincial capital of Deir al-Zor, security forces arrested Ahmad Tuma, a former political prisoner and secretary general of the Damascus Declaration, a grouping of opposition figures founded in 2005 to unify efforts to transform the country into a democracy.

"Heavily armed 'amn' (security police) came to Dr Tuma's clinic and dragged him away in front of his patients," one of Tuma's friends told Reuters by phone.

Some residents of Hama, scene of a crackdown by Assad's father nearly 30 years ago, had sought to halt any military advance by blocking roads between neighborhoods with garbage containers, burning tyres, wood and metal.

Tuesday's raid by security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad followed the killings of at least three people when troops and security police entered Hama at dawn on Monday.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said the world could not stand by "inactive and powerless" in the face of the violence.

"We are hoping that the Security Council adopt a clear and firm position and we call on all the members of the Security Council to take responsibility in light of this dramatic situation with a Syrian population subjected day after day to an unacceptable, ferocious and implacable armed repression."

French MP Gerard Bapt, head of the French-Syrian Friendship Committee, told Reuters: "With the Arab League not moving and with a nation like Saudi Arabia saying nothing publicly to condemn the killings by the Syrian regime it is difficult to see international pressure rising beyond the economic."

France, unlike its European partners and the United States, says Assad has lost legitimacy to rule. But a French campaign for U.N. condemnation of the crackdown has met stiff Russian and Chinese resistance.

France's foreign minister Alain Juppe, who held talks in Moscow last week, said on Tuesday there were signs Russia was beginning to question its Syrian stance. He said he attempted to sway his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, but that Russia was still threatening to use a veto against the resolution.

The U.S. State Department said Syria's actions belied Assad's promises to launch a national political dialogue.

State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said Syria was "going in the wrong direction" and needed to take quick action to pull back security forces, stop violence, release political prisoners and launch political talks with the opposition.

German Ambassador Peter Wittig, U.N. Security Council president for the month of July, said at the United Nations on Tuesday that discussions continued about the Council possibly issuing a resolution on Syria.

"Discussions on a draft resolution that is on the table -- presented by the European Council members including mine -- will continue," said Wittig. "We don't know yet the result but there will be continued discussions on that initiative."

Wittig said he was hoping for support from other countries in the coming "days and weeks" for the resolution.

The U.N. is also expected to start discussing on July 14 the recent decision by the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors to report Syria's covert nuclear activities to the Security Council for possible punitive action.

Asked why there has been no international intervention in Syria like there was in Libya, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said a request from the Arab League to impose a no-fly zone on Libya was a major factor behind action there.

HAMA SYMBOLISM

"Assad may wait to see whether large-scale protests in Hama continue. He knows that using military aggression against peaceful demonstrations in a symbolic place like Hama would lose him support even from Russia and China," Syrian activist Mohammad Abdallah told Reuters from exile in Washington.

Abdallah said using tanks to attack Hama would "totally discredit" a promise made by Assad to seek dialogue with his opponents. Troops and armor were attacking villages and towns in the Jabal-al-Zawya region, north of Hama, which had been the scene of large protests against Assad's 11-year rule, he said.

Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, sent troops into Hama in 1982 to crush an Islamist-led uprising in the city where the Fighting Vanguard, the armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, made its last stand.

That attack killed many thousands, possibly up to 30,000, and one slogan shouted by Hama protesters in recent weeks was "Damn your soul, Hafez."

Authorities have prevented most independent media from operating in Syria, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and authorities.

Rights groups say Syrian security forces have shot and killed at least 1,300 civilians across the country since the protests started and arrested over 12,000.

Several troops and police officers have been killed for refusing to fire at civilians.

Authorities say 500 police and soldiers have been killed by gunmen, who they blame for most civilian deaths.

Assad has promised a national dialogue with the opposition to discuss political reform in Syria, which has been under the iron rule of the Baath Party for nearly 50 years. Many opposition figures reject dialogue while the killings and arrests continue.

(Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage and Erika Solomon, Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Robert Woodward)

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Syrian forces kill 24, protesters tell Assad to go (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian forces killed 24 civilians on Friday, a prominent rights lawyer said, as tens of thousands of people called on President Bashar al-Assad to step down in some of the biggest demonstrations since a three month uprising.

Defying Assad's military crackdown, demonstrators took to the streets again after Friday prayers across the country, from towns near the western Lebanese border to the desert regions near Iraq in the east.

"Bashar get out of our lives," read placards carried by thousands of Kurds who marched in the northeastern city of Amouda, according to a YouTube video taken by resident.

Encouraged by the widening protests, prominent opposition figures plan to convene a 'national salvation' conference in Damascus on July 16 to reach a broad based blueprint for solving Syria's political crisis.

"In light of the military solution chosen by the regime to end the revolution, the conference aims to reach a consensus guided by the popular protest movement for a transitional period and a national salvation government that lays the foundation for a new constitution and free elections," said a statement by the organizers, which was sent to Reuters.

The statement was signed by 50 figures, including Kurdish leader Mishaal al-Tammo, former judge Haitham al-Maleh, Nawaf al-Bashir, a tribal leader from the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, economist Aref Dalila, a fierce critic of the Assad's family's involvement in business and Walid al-Bunni, a physician who played a major role in a movement for democracy crushed by Assad ten years ago known as Damascus Spring.

With an intensifying security campaign that rights campaigners said resulted in arbitrary arrests of over 1,000 people over the last week alone, organizers said the conference would be far more difficult to convene than a meeting of intellectuals allowed by the authorities last week that gave a rare platform to several opposition figures.

Lawyer Razan Zaitouna told Reuters by phone that the 24 dead included seven protesters in the central city of Homs, scene of widening protests against Assad and 14 villagers in the northwestern province of Idlib, where troops backed by tanks and helicopters have been storming villages to subdue dissent.

The assaults concentrated on the northern section of Jabal al-Zawya region, home to 15,000 people, many of whom are trying to flee to Turkey, which already has 10,000 refugees from attacks in Idlib earlier this month.

"Troops have heavily blocked the roads leading out of Jabal al-Zawya and only tens of people have made it to Turkey. The roads are also dangerous because there is random gunfire from helicopters and tanks," a resident of the region said.

In the city of Hama, video footage appeared to show tens of thousands of protesters massed in a central square. Witnesses and activists said demonstrators in Hama and in Kurdish eastern areas carried red cards, employing a soccer symbol to demand Assad's "sending off."

Authorities have banned most international media from operating in Syria since the outbreak of the protests in March, making it difficult to verify reports from activists and authorities.

State television said gunmen had fired on security forces in Homs in several other towns, wounding two of them.

In the old Homs district of Bab Sbaa, a witness said several armored vehicles deployed and soldiers fired at protesters from road blocks set up in main streets in the city of one million.

Another activist in Homs said troops surrounded a private hospital in Bab Sbaa and several wounded people rushed to another hospital on the outskirts of the city where security forces were not present.

ASSAD "RUNNING OUT OF TIME"

Protesters have taken to the streets for 14 weeks to protest against Assad in unrest which has claimed the lives of around 1,300 civilians, with security forces arresting over 12,000 people and shooting security personnel who refused to fire on civilians, according to rights groups.

Authorities say 500 police and soldiers have been killed by gunmen they also blame for most of the civilian deaths.

Alongside the military crackdown, Assad has promised a national dialogue on political reforms.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "disheartened" by reports of continued violence near the Syrian border with Turkey. Monday's meeting in Damascus, she said, was not enough on its own to address demands for reform.

"It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time," she said during a visit to Lithuania.

"They are either going to allow a serious political process that will include peaceful protests to take place throughout Syria and engage in a productive dialogue with members of the opposition and civil society, or they're going to continue to see increasingly organized resistance."

Around 100 people crossed over into Lebanon early on Friday, witnesses said. Thousands have fled to Lebanon during the three months of unrest, but many have returned and it is unclear how many remain in Lebanon.

Syrian television showed a pro-Assad demonstration of around 100 people in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, and state media reported several other large gatherings organized by the authorities on Thursday which they said expressed support for Assad's proposed reforms.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Assad and his top officials in response to the violent repression of the protests.

On Wednesday the U.S. Treasury Department said it was also imposing sanctions against Syria's security forces for human rights abuses and against Iran for supporting them.

The Treasury named the four major branches of Syria's security forces and said any assets they may have subject to U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen and that Americans are barred from any dealings with them.

Damascus and Tehran both deny Western accusations that Iran has supported the crackdown on Syrian protesters.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Vilnius; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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Syrian president sacks governor of central city (AP)

BEIRUT – Syrian President Bashar Assad has sacked the governor of a key central city in the latest attempt to appease an uprising against his authoritarian rule.

State-run SANA news agency announced on Saturday that Assad has fired the governor of Hama. The statement gave no details or reason for the sacking.

Hama has seen one of the deadliest government crackdowns during more than three months of protests against the Assad family's 40-year dynasty.

The president has offered vague promises of reform while unleashing his army and security services the crush the protests. The growing death toll has fueled the uprising.

Activists say the regime has killed more than 1,400 people — mostly unarmed protesters — since mid-March, but the government disputes that toll.

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Nine killed as Syrian protesters tell Assad to go (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian forces shot dead nine protesters on Friday as tens of thousands of people called on President Bashar to step down in some of the biggest demonstrations since Syria's uprising began in March.

The Local Coordination Committees, a group of grassroots activists, said three demonstrators were shot dead in the central city of Homs, three in the northern province of Idlib, two in Damascus suburbs and one in Latakia.

Defying Assad's military crackdown, demonstrators took to the streets again after Friday prayers across the country, from towns near the western Lebanese border to the desert regions near Iraq in the east.

"Bashar get out of our lives," read placards carried by thousands of Kurds who marched in the northeastern city of Amouda, according to a YouTube video taken by resident.

In the city of Hama, video footage appeared to show tens of thousands of protesters massed in a central square. Witnesses and activists said demonstrators in Hama and in Kurdish eastern areas carried red cards, employing a soccer symbol to demand Assad's "sending off."

Authorities banned most international media from operating in Syria since the outbreak of the protests in March, making it difficult to verify reports from activists and authorities.

State television said gunmen had fired on security forces in Homs in several other towns, wounding two of them.

In the old Homs district of Bab Sbaa, a witness said several armored vehicles deployed and soldiers fired at protesters from road blocks set up in main streets in the city of one million.

Another activist in Homs said the death toll could be higher, with troops surrounding a private hospital in Bab Sbaa and several wounded people rushed to another hospital on the outskirts of the city where security forces were not present.

ASSAD "RUNNING OUT OF TIME"

Protesters have taken to the streets for 14 weeks to protest against Assad in unrest which has claimed the lives of around 1,300 civilians, according to rights groups. Authorities say 500 police and soldiers have been killed by gunmen they also blame for most of the civilian deaths.

Alongside the military crackdown, Assad has promised a national dialogue on political reforms and on Monday gave a rare platform to opposition demands when authorities allowed a conference in Damascus attended by 150 intellectuals.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "disheartened" by reports of continued violence near the Syrian border with Turkey. Monday's meeting in Damascus, she said, was not enough on its own to address demands for reform.

"It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time," she said during a visit to Lithuania.

"They are either going to allow a serious political process that will include peaceful protests to take place throughout Syria and engage in a productive dialogue with members of the opposition and civil society, or they're going to continue to see increasingly organized resistance."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that tank assaults killed three people overnight in hillside villages of the northern Idlib province near the Turkish border.

Around 100 people crossed over into Lebanon early on Friday, witnesses said. Thousands have fled to Lebanon during the three months of unrest, but many have returned and it is unclear how many remain in Lebanon.

Syrian television showed a pro-Assad demonstration of around 100 people in the northern city of Aleppo on Friday, and state media reported several other large gatherings on Thursday which they said expressed support for Assad's proposed reforms.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on Assad and his top officials in response to the violent repression of the protests.

On Wednesday the U.S. Treasury Department said it was also imposing sanctions against Syria's security forces for human rights abuses and against Iran for supporting them.

The Treasury named the four major branches of Syria's security forces and said any assets they may have subject to U.S. jurisdiction will be frozen and that Americans are barred from any dealings with them.

Damascus and Tehran both deny Western accusations that Iran has supported the crackdown on Syrian protesters.

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Vilnius; Writing by Dominic Evans)

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Syrian activists to meet to chart way out of crisis (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Some of Syria's most prominent intellectuals will meet in Damascus on Monday to seek a way out of the country's crisis, but anti-government activists said the meeting could give political cover to President Bashar al-Assad.

The planned meeting at a Damascus hotel includes noted critics of Assad who are respected in opposition circles, as well as some people known as supporters of Assad. The gathering appears to have approval from the government.

Assad has sent troops to crush protests across the country, while promising a national dialogue in an effort to contain an uprising for political freedoms which have posed the gravest threat to 41 years of family rule begun under his father.

Rights group say 1,300 civilians have died in the three-month uprising. The government says 250 security force members have died, and blames armed militants for provoking unrest.

Rights groups said security forces shot dead five civilians on Saturday, two at funerals which turned into protests and three during a campaign of arrests in Damascus and Quseir town near the Lebanese border. That followed mass protests on Friday, when activists said security forces killed at least 15 people.

PLATFORM

Organizers of Monday's conference described it as a platform for independent figures searching for a way out of the violence.

"There is no one officially from the regime or from the opposition, but the intelligentsia have a duty to meet and call for an end to military repression, release of political prisoners and establishment of political freedoms," opposition figure Aref Dalila told Reuters by telephone from Damascus.

"Most participants are demanding in total seriousness a move to a democratic system," said Dalila, a leading economist who was jailed for eight years after criticizing a telecoms contract awarded to a cousin of Assad.

Writer Louay Hussein, another high-profile opposition activist attending the meeting, said the aim was "to discuss the situation that is threatening the country and move in a safe and peaceful way into a democratic and civic state that achieves equality and justice for all citizens without discrimination."

But an activists' group called the Coordination Union of the Syrian Revolt denounced the conference as an attempt to "bestow legitimacy" on the regime. In Istanbul, where 150 Syrian youth activists concluded a two day opposition conference on Sunday, delegates also criticized the planned meeting.

"We respect the past of people like Mr Dalila and Mr Hussein, but the fact the conference will go ahead while killings continue is a whitewash for the regime. Whatever they decide will have no bearing for protesters on the ground," said Iyad Qarqour, an activist elected to the executive committee.

Dalila and Hussein were both among a group of four activists who met an Assad adviser two months ago to discuss a national dialogue. After that meeting the four said no dialogue could be held while protesters continued to be killed and security forces were arresting and torturing Syrians in their thousands.

Assad's repression of the protests has triggered Western condemnation and a gradual escalation of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Syrian leaders. Authorities in Damascus blame the violence on armed militant groups.

Despite strong rhetoric against Assad from Western leaders, there has been little suggestion they plan to go beyond economic sanctions to tougher action such as the military intervention launched against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

(Editing by Dominic Evans and Peter Graff)

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Syrian general: 400 soliders killed

Damascus, Syria (CNN) -- Syria's military spokesman now says more than 400 members of security forces have been killed in the months-long unrest that has taken hold in the country, a charge that came as videos surfaced allegedly showing children killed in the violence.

In an interview with CNN in Damascus, Maj. Gen. Riad Haddad initially said about 1,300 security personnel had been killed. He corrected that figure Sunday, saying 300 soldiers, 60 security officials and 50 police died in the violence.

He also has said 700 people, whom he described as terrorists, and their families had fled Syrian authorities to Turkey.

Haddad offered no details about the killings of the security forces other than to blame the deaths on armed gangs. CNN cannot independently verify the claim.

President Bashar al-Assad has faced growing criticism from leaders in the United States, Europe and elsewhere over his government's violent clampdown on demonstrators. Al-Assad has repeatedly blamed "armed gangs" in explaining its military crackdowns, which have led thousands of Syrians to cross into Turkey.

Months of protests have left more than 1,100 dead, according to human rights activists. But the extent of the carnage is not clear. About 10,000 people have been jailed since mid-March when the protests began, said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the London-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights.

CNN cannot independently verify the claims of the activist or the human rights group.

Haddad's claim came as two videos surfaced on YouTube purporting to show a 13-year-old boy killed Friday in al-Kiswah, a suburb of Damascus. In the video, a hand is seen turning the head of the boy to reveal what appears to be a surgical scar. The boy's mother is also seen in the video moaning and cursing al-Assad and his security forces.

A voice on the video identifies the boy as Ridah Alawiyah.

In another video, mourners are seen at a funeral for two children and a man who were said to have been killed in a Damascus suburb. Mourners can be heard chanting: "Patience oh Assad, patience, we will dig your grave."

While the videos appeared to be from Syria, CNN was not able to independently verify their authenticity. The network's reporters had been barred until recently from officially entering Syria, and its reporting about events inside the country had been limited largely to what the network was able to piece together based on official government reports, witnesses in the country, and accounts and videos posted on the Internet.

Meanwhile, Syrian state TV reported that some of the thousands who fled to Turkey to escape a military offensive have begun to return to their homes.

About 730 people returned to the town of Jisr al-Shugur, SANA -- the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency -- reported. But more than 11,400 Syrians are still in Turkey, the Turkish government said Sunday.

SANA said some residents returned to find electricity, water and phone lines ransacked by armed groups.

But opposition activists countered SANA's report, saying about 500 people were detained in neighboring villages and sent to Jisr al-Shugur ahead of the media's arrival.

Jameel Saib, a Syrian activist who lives on the other side of the border in Turkey, said he saw an interview with an alleged shop owner of a store in Jisr al-Shugur but "everyone knows that is not actually the man that owns the store."

Mohammed Fedo, another activist who lives on the Turkish side of the border, said about 300 to 400 Syrians returned to Jisr al-Shugur because conditions in the refugee camps in Turkey were unbearable.

Fedo said residents who were returning to Jisr al-Shugur were reporting arrests and killings by security forces.

Both activists said they had received reports from residents who said Syrian security forces had entered two towns, Najay and Habosh. Fedo said residents were reporting that Syrian forces were firing indiscriminately.

Haddad, the military spokesman, told CNN the military did enter Habosh but there was no evidence of violence, arrests or casualties. He denied security forces entered Najay.

CNN cannot independently verify the claims of the activists or Haddad.

CNN's Arwa Damon and Jomana Karadsheh contributed to this report.

CNN

Syrian forces kill 15 protesters, activists say (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian security forces shot dead at least 15 people on Friday after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and activists said.

"Tell the world Bashar is without legitimacy," shouted several thousand protesters in the Damascus suburb of Irbin, the chants audible in a phone call to a witness at the protest.

The Local Coordination Committees, a main activists' group, said it had the names of 14 civilians killed in the merchant city of Homs, the impoverished town of Kiswa south of Damascus and in the residential district of Barzeh in the capital.

Another protester was shot dead in the town of Qusair, a rights group said.

Syrian state television blamed the killings in Barzeh on armed men who authorities say are behind the violence in the three-month uprising, and said members of security forces were wounded. Syria has expelled most foreign journalists making it hard to verify witness accounts or official statements.

"The security police first used teargas then they started shooting from rooftops when shouting against Assad continued," a Barzeh resident who gave his name as Hussam said by phone. "Three youths were killed and I saw two bodies shot in the head and the chest."

In the central cities of Homs and Hama, protesters shouted "the people want the downfall of the regime," while in Deraa, cradle of the uprising, people waved banners rejecting Assad's promise in a speech this week to launch a national dialogue.

Deraa protesters chanted slogans urging people in Damascus, which has seen fewer demonstrations than rural protest centers, to follow their lead. "People of Damascus, here in Deraa we toppled the regime," they chanted.

Protests also erupted in western coastal cities and eastern provinces near Iraq. Syrian troops swept to the northern border with Turkey on Thursday, prompting another 1,500 refugees to flee across the frontier into camps which Turkish officials say now host more than 11,000 refugees.

Syrian television said on Friday army units were "completing their deployment" in border villages. It said there had been no casualties during the operation and that soldiers were greeted with traditional welcomes of flowers and rice by residents.

Assad's repression of the protests, in which Syrian rights groups say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed, has triggered Western condemnation and a gradual escalation of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Syrian leaders.

Syrian authorities blame Islamist militants and armed gangs for killing more than 200 police and security personnel.

On Friday the European Union announced extended sanctions against Syria, including against three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard accused of helping Damascus curb dissent. Syria denies Iran has played any role in tackling the unrest.

Four Syrian officials were also targeted, bringing to 34 the number of individuals and entities on the list which already includes Assad and his top officials.

Despite strong rhetoric among against Assad from Western leaders, there has been no suggestion they plan to go beyond economic sanctions to tougher action such as the military intervention launched against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

WASHINGTON WORRIED

The United States, which has also imposed targeted sanctions on Syrian officials, said a reported Syrian army move to surround and target the town of Khirbat al-Joz just 500 meters (yards) from the Turkish border was a worrying development.

"Unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only now affecting their own citizens but (raising) the potential of border clashes, then we're going to see an escalation of conflict in the area," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The crackdown has caused a crisis in Assad's once-warm relations with Turkey, which has become strongly critical.

Clinton said she had discussed the situation with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, and President Barack Obama had discussed it with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Davutoglu, who said Erdogan would speak to Assad on Friday, talked to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on Thursday and Ankara summoned the Syrian ambassador.

In an apparent easing of Ankara's criticism, Davutoglu said Assad's speech contained "positive elements in it as signals of reform," but said it was important that action followed.

At the border, only a few Syrian troops were visible on Friday, some occupying a building on a hill overlooking the border, directly across from the Turkish village of Guvecci.

Three Syrian soldiers were manning a sand-bagged machinegun post on top of a house in the Syrian border village of Khirbat al-Joz. Camps on the Syrian side of the border fence appeared deserted and no more refugees were crossing.

The United States has steadily sharpened its rhetoric toward Assad, saying he is losing credibility and must either implement promised reforms or get out of the way.

Protests have grown in northern areas following military assaults on towns and villages in the Jisr al-Shughour region of Idlib province, west of Aleppo, that sent more than 10,000 people fleeing across the 840-km (520-mile) border with Turkey.

Syrian television said hundreds of people were heading back to Jisr al-Shughour. A refugee who said he was at Yayladagi camp said on Thursday a delegation of notables from the city told people it was safe to go back, but that refugees told them there would be "no return until the fall of the (Assad) regime."

Syria, a mostly Sunni nation of 20 million with Kurdish, Alawite and Christian minorities, is vulnerable to sectarian tensions. Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, and his opponents say he increasingly relies on loyalist Alawite troops and irregulars known as 'shabbiha'.

(Additional reporting by Omer Berberoglu and Umit Bektas in Guvecci, Turkey, Simon Cameron-Moore and Ibon Villelabeitia in Ankara, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Syrian president blames crisis on 'saboteurs' (AP)

BEIRUT – Syria's embattled president said Monday that "saboteurs" are trying to exploit legitimate demands for reform, as the regime faces its most powerful challenge in more than four decades.

President Bashar Assad's televised address was only his third public speech since the country's uprising began in March, inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

"What is happening today has nothing to do with reform, it has to do with vandalism," Assad told a crowd of supporters at Damascus University. "There can be no development without stability, and no reform through vandalism. ... We have to isolate the saboteurs."

He warned that the country's economy will take a beating unless the unrest ends.

"The most dangerous thing we face in the coming period is the weakness or the collapse of the Syrian economy," Assad said, standing in front of six red, white and green Syrian flags.

Assad's message is not new: Since the uprising broke out, the Syrian government has claimed the unrest is being driven by armed thugs and a foreign conspiracy, not true reform seekers. His message about the economy was aimed at galvanizing his supporters in the business community and prosperous merchant classes, which the regime relies on to help retain its grip on power.

The opposition estimates more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as Assad's forces try to crush the protest movement. The deadly crackdown has only fueled protesters, who now insist they will accept nothing less than the regime's downfall.

Assad, who inherited power in 2000 after his father's death, has made a series of overtures to try to ease the growing outrage, but protesters have dismissed them as either symbolic or coming far too late.

On Monday, he announced the formation of a committee to study constitutional amendments, including one that would open the way for the formation of political parties other than the ruling Baath Party. He said he expected an entire package of reforms by September or the end of the year at the latest.

Previously, Assad lifted the decades-old emergency laws that give the regime a free hand to arrest people without charge and granted Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds, a long-ostracized minority.

International pressure on the regime has been mounting steadily and nearly 11,000 people have fled into neighboring Turkey in an embarrassing spectacle for one of the most tightly controlled countries in the Middle East.

Assad urged the refugees to return home, saying there will be no retaliation against them.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday said Syria's leader must reform or go. Hague also said he hopes Turkey will play an influential role.

"I hope our Turkish colleagues will bring every possible pressure to bear on the Assad regime with a very clear message that they are losing legitimacy and that Assad should reform or step aside," Hague said as he arrived in Luxembourg for a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

They are expected to discuss expanding sanctions on Syria, where the government is cracking down brutally on dissent.

On Monday, the government tried to back up its claim that criminals were behind the unrest by taking journalists and foreign diplomats on a trip to a northern town where authorities say armed groups killed 120 security personnel two weeks ago.

The trip to Jisr al-Shughour in the restive Idlib province near the border with Turkey was organized jointly by the Syrian foreign ministry and the military. It included 70 Western and Arab diplomats, including U.S. ambassador Robert Ford.

Maj. Gen. Riad Haddad, head of the Syrian military's political department, told journalists on the trip that the military will continue to pursue gunmen "in every village where they are found, even near the Turkish border."

In addition to the refugees in Turkey, some 5,000 people who fled their homes are camped out on the Syrian side of the border and face dwindling resources.

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Associated Press writer Don Melvin contributed to this report from Luxembourg.

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Syrian forces prevent refugees fleeing to Turkey (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian forces swept through a northwestern border region Sunday to stem an exodus of refugees to Turkey that is raising international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and a rights activist said.

Syrian human rights campaigner Ammar al-Qurabi also accused pro-government forces of attacking people who were helping the refugees as they tried to escape from a widening military assault to crush protests against Assad's autocratic rule.

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross was due in Damascus Sunday to discuss expanding its relief effort with Syrian officials.

The latest assault followed the biggest protests across Syria Friday in four months of anti-Assad unrest, despite his clampdown on public dissent. Security forces shot dead up to 19 protesters Friday, rights campaigners said.

Assad will make a speech Monday about "current circumstances," the state news agency said, his first speech since April 16 and only his third since the start of the violence.

Authorities blame the violence on armed groups and Islamists, backed by foreign powers. Syria has barred most international journalists, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.

Qurabi said troops and gunmen loyal to Assad had blocked roads leading to the Turkish frontier in the rich arable region of Jisr al-Shughour, leaving thousands stranded.

"The Syrian army has spread around the border area to prevent frightened residents from fleeing across the border to Turkey," he told Reuters.

People trying to help had come under attack around the small town of Bdama near the Turkish border which Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to Assad stormed Saturday, burning houses and arresting dozens, witnesses said.

"Militiamen close to the regime are attacking people in Bdama and the surrounding areas who are trying to deliver relief and food to thousands of refugees stuck along the border and trying to flee," said Qurabi.

Qurabi's comments could not be independently confirmed, but a local resident backed up his account.

"There are roadblocks everywhere in Bdama to prevent people from fleeing but villagers are finding other routes through valleys to escape to the Turkish border," said Omar, a farmer from Bdama who managed to reach the border area.

Witnesses said pro-Assad forces were firing randomly, ransacking houses and burning crops in Jisr al-Shughour, an area known for its apple groves, olive trees and wheat.

"We received no bread today. There was one bakery operating in Bdama but it has been forced to shut. The 'shabbiha' (Assad's gunmen) are shooting randomly," one refugee, a carpenter who gave his name as Hammoud, told Reuters by telephone.

"One man in Bdama was injured today and we managed to smuggle him to hospital in Turkey. But many fear getting shot if they attempt to cross the border," the refugee added.

Bdama is one of the nerve centers providing food and supplies to several thousand other Syrians who have escaped the violence from frontier villages but chose to take shelter in fields on the Syrian side of the boundary.

TURKISH STRAINS

The number of refugees who have crossed into Turkey from Syria has reached 10,114, and another 10,000 are sheltering by the border just inside Syria, according to Turkish officials.

Sunni Muslim Turkey, seeking to restore its regional role, has improved its ties with Assad, who belongs to Syria's minority Alawite sect, and backed his drive to seek peace with Israel and improve relations with the United States.

But the mass killings of Syrian Sunnis have made Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan increasingly critical of Assad.

Erdogan has warned Syria against repeating a brutal campaign of repression in the 1980s that killed thousands. He has also sent his foreign minister and the head of Turkey's land forces to tour the border refugee region in the last several days.

The International Federation for Human Rights and the U.S.-based Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies said in a statement they had verified from local sources that Syrian forces had killed more than 130 people and arrested over 2,000 in Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages in the last few days.

Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), will arrive in Damascus Sunday for talks with Syrian officials on expanding its relief effort in the country, the aid agency said.

The two days of talks follow an appeal by the independent aid agency last week for greater access to the civilian population, including people who have been wounded or detained.

Syrian rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people detained since March.

The Syrian Observatory for human rights has said more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed. Other rights campaigners said tens of security personnel had been killed by loyalist troops for refusing to shoot at unarmed civilians.

Assad has increasingly been using the military to crush protests in areas that have been agitated by the killings. Central neighborhoods in the more mixed cities of Damascus and Aleppo, where security is intense, have not seen large protests.

In the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, where tens of thousands marched Saturday in the funeral of two protesters killed on Friday, activists prepared for another big rally as large army garrisons were deployed around the city's main entrances.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; editing by David Stamp and Jan Harvey)

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Jolie visits Syrian refugees in Turkey

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie met with Syrian refugees in Turkey on Friday and drew attention to the anguish faced by families -- and families torn apart -- by the violence in Syria.

More than 9,600 refugees are living in four camps managed by Turkey and the Turkish Red Crescent, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, visited the Altinozu camp in Turkey's Hatay province, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Syrian border, the UNHCR said.

"The people in this camp have fled in fear for their lives, and many told me they were distraught about the safety of loved ones still in Syria," Jolie said, according to the refugee agency.

Jolie met with one woman whose husband was killed. The woman fled to Syria late in her pregnancy and gave birth at the camp, the UNHCR said. Another woman told Jolie about her husband who was too afraid to cross the border.

A wave of Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Refugees at Altinozu are housed in warehouses at an old tobacco factory, and they staged a demonstration at the camp in solidarity with the many anti-government demonstrations occurring across the border in Syria.

They held up signs that said, "Our military is killing its own people, please make it stop" and "U.N., help us please." People chanted, "stop killing children" and other anti-regime slogans.

The people in this camp have fled in fear for their lives, and many told me they were distraught about the safety of loved ones still in Syria.
--Angelina Jolie

"I appreciate the opportunity to visit this camp and talk to these families," Jolie said, according to the UNHCR. "It is a really complex situation and everyone needs to be doing all they can for the innocent families caught in the crossfire. I will be following this situation very closely and doing everything I can."

She also praised the Turkish government and the Turkish Red Crescent for their "tremendous generosity" to the refugees.

"The Red Crescent has set up camps really quickly and provided medical and other care. And UNHCR stands ready to assist if the situation starts to escalate," Jolie said, according to the U.N. office.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR in 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.'"

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Arwa Damon and Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Syrian tanks storm town near Turkey border: residents (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed a town near the Turkish border Saturday, burning houses and arresting 70 people, witnesses said, in wide-ranging military assault to crush a three month uprising.

"They came at 7 a.m. to Bdama. I counted nine tanks, 10 armored carriers, 20 jeeps and 10 buses. I saw shabbiha (gunmen) setting fire to two houses," said Saria Hammouda, a lawyer from the small town of Bdama.

The town lies 2 km from the Turkish border, in Jisr al-Shughour region, from where thousands of people have fled to Turkey following military assaults to quell dissent against 41 years of Assad family rule.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; editing by David Stamp)

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Jolie in Turkey to meet Syrian refugees

Angelina Jolie is a U.N. goodwill ambassadorThe actress, and a load of toys, made their way to a refugee campThe number of Syrian refugees in Turkey is approaching 10,000

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, arrived in southern Turkey on Friday to visit Syrian refugees, a high-profile trip focusing attention on misery faced by ordinary citizens who have escaped violence in turbulent Syria.

Jolie, who is scheduled to visit the Altinozu refugee camp, arrived at the airport in Hatay and was greeted by officials, according to the state-run Anatolian Agency.

Hatay provincial officials had vans for the trip to Altinozu, and "toys unloaded from the plane were loaded to one of the vans in her convoy," the agency reported.

More than 9,600 Syrian men, women, and children have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Refugees at Altinozu are housed in warehouses at an old tobacco factory, and they staged a demonstration at the camp in solidarity with the many anti-government demonstrations occurring across the border in Syria.

They held up signs that said "Our military is killing its own people, please make it stop," "U.N., help us please" and people chanted "stop killing children" and other anti-regime slogans.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.'"

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Arwa Damon and Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Angelina Jolie to visit Syrian refugees

Actress Angelina Jolie is a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency.Jolie will arrive in Istanbul and head to HatayMore than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for TurkeyJolie is a U.N. refugee agency goodwill ambassador

(CNN) -- Actress Angelina Jolie, a longtime goodwill ambassador for the United Nations' refugee agency, will be headed to Turkey this week to visit Syrian refugees, Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

Jolie is expected to arrive in Istanbul and head to Hatay on Friday, according to the ministry, which accepted an application for her visit on Wednesday.

More than 8,000 Syrians have fled their country for Turkey to escape violence, including a military offensive in the Jisr al-Shugur area.

Jolie was named a goodwill ambassador for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in early 2001 and has visited more than 20 countries "to highlight the plight of millions of uprooted people and to advocate for their protection."

The U.N. office said her interest in "humanitarian affairs was piqued in 2000 when she went to Cambodia to film the adventure film 'Tomb Raider.' "

Jolie has won numerous acting awards, including a best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance in 1999's "Girl, Interrupted."

CNN's Yesim Comert contributed to this report

CNN

Syrian army readies sweep of second dissident town (AP)

By ZEINA KARAM and SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Zeina Karam And Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press – 19 mins ago

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

Yahoo! News

Syrian forces round up hundreds near northern town (Reuters)

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops rounded up hundreds of people in a sweep through villages near Jisr al-Shughour on Monday, fleeing residents said, after President Bashar al-Assad's army retook the rebellious town.

Nearly 7,000 Syrians have already fled the region around Jisr al-Shughour, seeking sanctuary in neighboring Turkey, while thousands more are sheltering close to the frontier in rural areas just inside Syria, activists say.

Monday's wave of arrests followed an army assault on the northwestern town, with troops backed by helicopters and tanks regaining control one week after authorities said 120 security personnel were killed in fighting they blamed on "armed groups."

Some residents said the killings followed a mutiny, or a refusal by some troops to shoot protesters who had joined nationwide demonstrations calling for an end to Assad's rule.

Refugees from Jisr al-Shughour, sheltering on the Syrian side of the border with Turkey, said the military was combing villages to the east of the town and arresting hundreds of men between the ages of 18 and 40, in a pattern seen in other military crackdowns since the unrest started in March.

One person who escaped from Jisr al-Shughour, called Khaled, said two mosques had been hit by tank shelling and the bodies of three fleeing residents, a man, a woman and a child laid on a road 2 km north of the town near a packing material factory.

Mustafa, a 39-year-old mason who fled on Sunday, said there were nine bodies in Jisr al-Shughour and seven on the outskirts.

"This would be a relatively light death toll," one activist in Damascus said. "The shelling and firing have been indiscriminate and we have been fearing a higher death toll,"

Syrian rights groups say 1,300 civilians have been killed since the start of the uprising. One group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed.

ARMY TAKES CONTROL

The government says the protests are part of a violent conspiracy backed by foreign powers to sow sectarian strife.

Army units "have taken total control of Jisr al-Shughour and are chasing remnants of the armed terrorist gangs in the woods and mountains," the Syrian news agency said on Sunday.

It said a soldier and two armed men were killed in clashes around the town. The army defused explosives planted on bridges and roads, and uncovered mass graves containing mostly mutilated bodies of 10 security men killed and buried by armed groups.

Syria has banned most foreign correspondents, making it difficult to verify accounts of events.

A man identifying himself as a Syrian army defector, whose comments were streamed on the Internet and translated by Britain's Sky News television, said anti-government forces had set traps to delay the military advance and let people escape.

"We waited to get about 10 percent of the population out. The remaining 90 percent had already managed to leave," the man, identifying himself as Lieutenant-Colonel Hussein Harmoush, told the online Ugarit News video news channel.

Thousands of people from the town of 50,000 people, located on a vital road junction, had already fled to Turkey, about 20 km (12 miles) away, before Sunday's assault.

Turkey has grown increasingly critical of Assad in recent weeks and has now set up four camps to accommodate refugees.

In a sign of tensions between the countries, which had close trade and political ties before the crisis, supporters of Assad protested outside the Turkish embassy in Damascus on Sunday.

Turkey's Anatolian news agency said some people climbed the embassy walls and hung a Syrian flag, and Syrian security forces prevented some protesters from trying to lower the Turkish flag.

A resident said the crowd, which had earlier marched past the French and British embassies, then tore down tourist posters on the outside wall of the Turkish embassy.

France, with British support, has led efforts for the United Nations Security Council to condemn Assad's repression of the protests. Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said last week Assad had lost the legitimacy to rule Syria.

Assad, who inherited power when his father died in 2000, has offered some moves aimed at appeasing protesters, lifting a 48-year state of emergency and promising a national dialogue -- steps which have been dismissed by many activists.

The privately-owned Al-Watan newspaper said on Monday a committee formed to investigate the unrest had imposed a travel ban on the former governor of Deraa, where protests broke out on March 18, and its head of security. It said there would be "no immunity for people who committed crimes."

Residents said the army unit attacking Jisr al-Shughour was commanded by Assad's brother Maher and employed the same tactics used to crush protests in other areas.

The United States has accused Syria's government of creating a "humanitarian crisis" and urged it to halt its offensive and allow immediate access by the International Committee for the Red Cross to help refugees, detainees and the wounded.

(Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Peter Millership)

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New post: Syrian blogger is a hoax

A Facebook page was created to raise awareness and support for the supposedly missing blogger.The life of "Amina Abdallah" was chronicled on what was thought to be her blogA new author claims responsibility for all posts"I never expected this level of attention," he writesThe fictional Abdallah became an unlikely icon of the Syrian uprising

(CNN) -- A new post on the "A Gay Girl in Damascus" blog that has been reported to belong to a Syrian-American woman claimed Sunday that her dramatic story is, in fact, a hoax.

In a post titled "Apology to readers," author "Tom MacMaster" said he is the sole person responsible for material on the site. The writer signed off from Istanbul, Turkey.

"I never expected this level of attention," MacMaster wrote. "While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground."

All previous posts, which began appearing in February, had been attributed either to "Amina Abdallah," the outspoken Syrian-American woman, or her cousin, "Rania Ismail."

Abdallah was reported on the blog to have been abducted last week and her alleged disappearance prompted online campaigns demanding her release.

Her story was picked up by international news groups, including CNN, making her an unlikely icon of the Syrian uprising.

CNN has not been allowed into Syria to cover the unrest and draws from social media and interviews with witnesses on the ground there to inform its reporting.

Despite the title of Sunday's post, MacMaster wrote: "I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about."

The claims made on the blog could not be confirmed when CNN reported on Adballah's story last week. Calls to officials in Damascus and at Syria's Embassy in London went unanswered and attempts to contact her family were unsuccessful.

Amnesty International said recently that it believes more than 1,100 people -- including 82 children -- have been killed in Syria since a crackdown began in mid-March. Many bloggers and journalists have been arrested, rights groups have said.

Protesters are challenging President Bashar al-Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for some 41 years.

CNN