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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Desperately Fleeing Syria: Refugees Cross into Turkey (Time.com)

The young Syrian in the white undershirt cradled a toddler in his arms as he sat beneath a line of laundry strung up between two stout gum trees. He stared out from behind the rusty metal gate of the disused tobacco warehouse that is now home to hundreds of Syrian refugees, most of whom are from the flashpoint town of Jisr al-Shughour, some 40 kilometers south of the Turkish border. A gaggle of frustrated journalists waited across the narrow street from the warehouse grounds, prevented from speaking to the refugees by uniformed Turkish police officers as well as plainclothes security officials who briskly brushed away anyone who approached the gate.

"I'm from Jisr al-Shughour," the Syrian man shouted in response to a question I yelled out in Arabic from across the street. "We came yesterday, we're seven families," he screamed, gesturing to the half a dozen young children playing around him amid the rows of neatly arranged white tents now covering the grounds of the old factory. "It's war, they're shelling civilians," he bellowed as a woman balancing a mattress on her head walked past him toward a tent, and a plainclothes Turkish security official in a green-and-white striped shirt hurriedly approached him. The official stood over the refugee for a few moments before leaving. "Tell me what you saw in your village and along the road to Turkey," I screamed, cupping my hands over my mouth in a bid to carry my voice further. The refugee didn't answer. Instead, he held his hand up to his mouth and shook his head, in a gesture that meant he could no longer speak. "Did they prevent you from talking to me?" I asked. He nodded his head. (Chaos in Syria: Are Army Deserters Helping to Arm the Opposition?)

"I'm just an employee, I'm doing my job," a plainclothes officer later told TIME. "The government says you can't talk to them. We have orders."

More than 2,790 Syrians have streamed across the border into the southern Turkish province of Hatay, the state Anatolia News Agency reported Friday. The government has established two camps, one in Yayladagi, the other in Altinozou, and is planning a third, the agency said. The Turks clearly expect a mass exodus in the coming days and weeks. The Hurriyet daily reported on Friday that the government may establish a buffer zone in the southern border area "if hundreds of thousands [of Syrians] want to seek refuge in Turkey."

That may happen sooner rather than later, given that Syrian state media announced on Friday that an anticipated military offensive had begun in Jisr al-Shughour, a restive Sunni town of some 50,000, "in response to the inhabitants'... call for help." Damascus says "armed gangs" in the area killed more than 120 security personnel last week, a claim vociferously denied by Syrian rights activists who say the killings were due to mutinous units of the military who, rather than shoot unarmed protesters, turned their weapons on their colleagues.

Abu Fady, a resident of Khirbet al-Jouz, not far from Jisr al-Shughour, reached by phone Friday said food supplies were low and that hundreds of people were leaving the village, heading for the Turkish border. "People are scared," he said. "and we should be scared of this regime." Abu Fady said there were hundreds of military vehicles amassed on the Syrian side of the Turkish border, to intimidate or prevent people from crossing. "This is intolerable," he said. "I want to get my family out of here tonight."

France and Britain are rallying support at the United Nations Security Council for a resolution against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, while once-staunch allies of Damascus like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have distanced themselves from the Syrian leader. Erdogan has steadily upped the tempo of his criticism. The images from Syria were "unpalatable," Erdogan told Turkey's ATV television on Thursday night. "They are acting in an inhumane way," he said, referring to the Syrian regime and suggesting that Turkey could support any U.N. move against Assad. "In the face of violence, we cannot continue to support Syria. We have relatives living in Syria," he said. (See why the West won't intervene in Syria.)

There are, in fact, blood ties that bind residents of the Turkish-Syrian border, many of whom on the Turkish side are ethnic Arabs. "Hassan," an 18-year-old Syrian, who said he was from Khirbet al-Jouz, sat along the low concrete wall of a flat-roofed home in the sleepy Turkish hamlet of Guvecci, about 20 minutes drive from the Yayladagi camp. He was red-faced as he squinted into the mid-morning sun, beads of sweat clung above his blonde brows. The young man said he'd walked across the border half an hour ago, to find his Turkish relative Abu Omar, who would help him buy bread. "I just came to get bread and to return," Hassan said. "In our town, there's no food, no bread. When we see the army, we hide, they're shooting at people." Hassan refused to present his national Syrian ID card, saying he feared the consequences of divulging his identity, despite a pledge from me that he would remain anonymous. It's unclear how he managed to evade the Turkish soldiers spread out in the lush fields between the village, which hugs a gently sloping hill, and a paved road in the valley that demarcates the Syrian border.

A hilltop Turkish military outpost sits adjacent to Guvecci's handful of houses. On Friday, a military truck could be seen loading Syrians gathered at the border road, as vehicles, mainly ambulances, continued to stream across the hill from Syria into Turkey. The military kept the media at a distance.

Aisha Gur, sat under a leafy grapevine in the small courtyard of her home in Guvecci. The 45-year-old's modest abode was one of the closest dwellings to the border road, which could be accessed from a steep, sloping village pathway covered in loose stones and animal dung that passed alongside Gur's home. A small flock of sheep meandered along the track, toward an olive grove near flowering orange pomegranate trees. "Look, see that ambulance." Gur said, pointing out toward the road. "We've seen lots of ambulances coming from Syria lately," she said, "but none of us are allowed to speak with the people in them."

The refugees picked up from the informal border post at Guvecci were destined for one of the two nearby camps. As the hours passed, several mini-vans full of tired-looking Syrians disgorged their passengers inside the grounds of the Yayladagi camp. A man inside the fenced tent city limped past on a single crutch, his right foot bandaged. He said he was from Jisr al-Shughour, had been shot by Syrian security forces, and had crossed the border overnight. "The shabihha and security have surrounded us," he said referring to armed gangs of Assad loyalists. It was clear that the man desperately wanted to speak, but a uniformed Turkish policeman was quickly heading toward him. He sighed as he watched him approach. "I can't speak to you," he said. "I want to, but I can't."

See pictures of protests in Syria.

Read about the differences between Syria and Turkey.

View this article on Time.com

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Fleeing violence, Syrian refugees warn of potential massacre (The Christian Science Monitor)

Guvecci, Turkey – Syrian refugees continued to stream into Turkey Thursday, fleeing an expected revenge attack from the regime against their town of Jisr al-Shughur.

Even as Syrian forces began encircling the northwest town, Turkey said its border is open to those trying to escape the violence. By dusk Thursday, 2,400 Syrians had crossed into Turkey at this and another illegal crossing nearby.

"They are killing people, I saw that with my own eyes," says one refugee who gave his name as Abu Ali, a young man in sandals and a T-shirt from Jisr al-Shughur who crossed several times in recent weeks.

Of all the revolutions sweeping through the Middle East, none create a starker dilemma for Turkey than the one tearing apart its ally Syria. So while it is responding to the humanitarian needs of Syrian refugees, it is also going to great lengths to shield Syria from further international criticism.

RECOMMENDED: Syria 101: 4 attributes of Syria's authoritarian regime

Turkish police and local authorities have been ordered to prevent the refugees from telling of their experiences in a city where fighting in the past week caused the death of 120 Syrian security and policemen, according to Syrian authorities.

A closed-circuit camera has been set up along one side of a long fence around the main refugee camp in the town of Yayladagi. Police whistle and wave off journalists who approach the fence; forbidden also are hospitals, where some 35 Syrians are recovering from bullet and shrapnel wounds.

The Turkish regional governor made a visit, passing along the rolling hills, wheat fields, and olive groves of the border line – and its unofficial crossing points – in a convoy of more than 10 vehicles. He eventually stopped at the refugee camp, some miles away, but then roared past waiting journalists – blue and red lights flashing – without making a comment.

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The situation could not be more different than the openness displayed by Turkey regarding Iranian refugees in 2009, and even wounded Libyan refugees brought to Turkey for urgent medical treatment, when some journalists were escorted into their presence in government limousines.

Why Syria is differentFor years, Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has worked to strengthen ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose government is now being vilified across the globe for a vicious crackdown that rights activists say have claimed 1,300 lives.

The two leaders refer to each other as "brother," and speak regularly on the phone – most recently on Wednesday. But Syria's dictatorship bears little resemblance to Turkey's democratic system, which sees another test during a general election next Sunday.

Turkey has sought to present itself as a democratic role model across the region a€“ one that takes the side of people power and justice every time. But the contradictions of that policy await the Syrian refugees as they cross the border.

The Syrians who have fled have much to say, and appear eager to do so if not identified.

Abu Ali, who has avoided the refugee camp, says two of his relatives were wounded in protests in the town but disappeared after they went to the hospital. Grim stories are on his mind, creating a profound fear shared by many refugees.

"The military is moving in to kill the people; they are there to intimidate the people – otherwise we wouldn't run away. It has turned into a blood feud, so it is very deep," he says. "Until Assad goes, it will only get worse. They are pressing and torturing the people, because they fear Assad will lose his power."

And if that happens, Turkey is likely to lose some face.

Faint advice from TurkeyMr. Erdogan stated Wednesday that Turkey would "keep our doors open to all Syrians seeking refuge," while Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey had "serious concerns about the situation in Syria." Syria must act "more decisively" on political reforms long-promised by Assad, Mr. Davutoglu added.

But that was faint advice from a nation that has increasingly thrown around its diplomatic weight in recent years, a NATO ally that has become a regional player that has taken on Israel and become closer to Iran.

Turkey's promising diplomatic future appears at risk just 12 miles across the border, where Jisr al-Shughur braces for a new level of retaliation from the regime. Syrian government forces are encircling the town to exact "decisive" revenge for the death of 120 security and police forces during what Damascus called an "ambush" by armed gangs.

Eyewitnesses quoted by wire agencies spoke of a military column of 60 transporters with tanks and armored vehicles, and 10 trucks loaded with soldiers, departed from the city of Aleppo and headed toward Jisr al-Shughur.

Syrian officials have vowed to strike "decisively" against the town. The pro-Assad newspaper Al-Watan reported that the military was now ready to launch an offensive in the province that would last for days. An Associated Press description said the report claimed the military would be battling 2,000 armed gunmen.

Residents were fleeing the area "to give the Syrian army a chance to enter all areas and confront the gunmen."

UN criticizes Syria's actionsSuch threats are coming against a background of rising international pressure on Syria.

"We are receiving an increasing number of alarming reports pointing to the Syrian government's continuing efforts to ruthlessly crush civilian protests," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, today. "It is utterly deplorable for any government to attempt to bludgeon its population into submission, using tanks, artillery and snipers."

The problem for Turkey's government is clear in the fine words used to create this alliance in the past.

At a joint press conference in late 2009 in Damascus, for example, Erdogan said: "Syria is our gate to the Middle East, and it is our second home as Turkey is the second home for the Syrians and Syria's gate to Europe."

Assad claimed that the 51 bilateral agreements signed at the meeting would redraw the map of the Middle East, and the two nations had "become ... an example to be followed of brotherly ties between the two people's and countries."

Assad hailed the "strong and common will that we have possessed [to make] joint future."

Praising Erdogan, Assad was speaking for both leaders when he said "whoever respects himself and his homeland gains the support of his people ... and he who uses his cards above the table, not under that table ... gains the respect of the world."

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Justices rule fleeing police is a 'violent' felony

The Supreme Court has ruled that fleeing police can be a violent felony."Risk of violence is inherent to vehicle flight," Justice Anthony Kennedy saysThe court rejects the argument that a car chase shouldn't lead to a stricter sentenceJustice Scalia dissents, saying the law should be declared "void for vagueness'Justices Kagan and Ginsburg, in a separate dissent, argue there was no violent felony

Washington (CNN) -- They have become staples of many cable and broadcast television stations: high-speed, often dangerous police pursuits of fleeing motorists, videotaped and packaged into such shows as "World's Wildest Police Chases."

In an appeal that came to the Supreme Court, the issue was: When do such incidents cross over into the realm of "violent felonies" that could lead to increased jail time?

The justices, by a 6-3 vote Thursday, dismissed an appeal from an Indiana man who received an enhanced federal sentence because of prior serious offenses, one of which was for trying to escape in a vehicle.

Justice Anthony Kennedy said that while the federal law in question does not specifically mention dangerous car chases, they clearly are the kind of crime that deserves to be treated more seriously.

"Risk of violence is inherent to vehicle flight," Kennedy said. "It is well known that when offenders use motor vehicles as their means of escape they create serious potential risks of physical injury to others. Flight from a law enforcement officer invites, even demands, pursuit."

Marcus Sykes had pleaded guilty to felony possession of a firearm, a federal offense. He had attempted to rob two people at gunpoint, according to court records. He also had at least three prior felonies on his record, including an armed robbery.

It was the third felony that concerned the high court. Indiana's "resisting law enforcement" law provides various criteria, depending on the circumstances, for those who flee officers. Sykes had at one time used a vehicle to escape after an officer had ordered him to stop, which is a felony under state law.

Officers had noticed Sykes driving without headlights, and when police flashed their emergency sirens, the suspect took off and a chase ensued. Prosecutors said Sykes drove on the wrong side of the road and through yards with residents nearby, then rammed a fence and finally crashed into a house. He fled on foot and was eventually captured, thanks to a police dog in pursuit.

Under the federal Armed Criminal, Career Criminal Act, Sykes received a mandatory minimum 15-year prison term for the gun possession charge, enhanced because of his past criminal record. The law was designed to get tough with habitual felons through longer sentences.

Sykes appealed, admitting he fled police and that it was a felony, but he argued it was not violent" The federal law labels as violent felonies such offenses such as burglary, arson or extortion, or where there is "conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another."

Kennedy said the "serious potential risk" standard applies to Sykes' driving behavior, since he repeatedly refused to pull over and submit to custody.

"As that pursuit continues, the risk of an accident accumulates," Kennedy wrote. "And having chosen to flee, and thereby commit a crime, the perpetrator has all the more reason to avoid capture."

This is the fourth time in the past four years the high court has tried to clarify the meaning of "violent felony" under the so-called residual clauses of the federal law.

In a typically sharp dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said the law, like the majority's efforts to interpret its boundaries, is ultimately a failure.

"Today's opinion will sow further confusion," he wrote. "Insanity, it has been said, is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Four times is enough" in trying to clarify what are violent felonies under the career-criminal law. He said the statute should be declared "void for vagueness."

Justice Elena Kagan also dissented, but for far different reasons. She said that under the state's own guidelines, Sykes' conduct was clear: there was no aggravated vehicular flight.

"Because petitioner Marcus Sykes was convicted only of simple vehicular flight, and not of any flight offense involving aggressive or dangerous activity, I would find he did not commit a 'violent felony'" under the federal law.

Supported by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Kagan said states properly distinguish among various types of efforts to escape police, and that the high court should have relied on those state standards to make its ruling, rather than trying to parse the federal law's definition of "violent" felony, which does not specifically include vehicular flight.

Kennedy in his ruling cited a study by the International Association of Chiefs of Police showing that at least 7,737 police chases were reported nationwide from 2001 through 2007. Those pursuits resulted in 313 injuries to police and bystanders, or a rate of about 4-in-100.

There was no indication whether the pursuit of Sykes was videotaped by a police dashboard camera, and if so, whether that visual record was used against him in the trial or subsequent appeals.

The case was Sykes v. United States (09-11311).

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Source: Woman dies after fleeing Syria

Syrian forces have been shelling border villages and locals are fleeing to Lebanon, locals saySyria is cracking down on anti-government protestsBetween 700 and 850 people have died in the last two months, observers sayDamascus blames the unrest on armed groups

(CNN) -- A wounded Syrian woman died of her injuries after being brought into Lebanon as she fled Syrian security forces, a Lebanese security source told CNN Sunday.

She was one of at least 10 wounded Syrians -- including a young girl and a five-year-old boy -- being treated in Lebanese hospitals, the source said.

It's at least the second death of a Syrian in Lebanon this weekend, according to local sources, as Damascus continues a military crackdown on anti-government protests.

Reports from non-governmental organizations suggest that somewhere between 700 and 850 people have been killed since the start of the protests and thousands of other people have reportedly been arrested, the United Nations said Friday.

About 1,000 Syrians have fled into Lebanon, according to Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

The border village of Heleyfeh in Syria is surrounded by tanks, and 60 families from the village fled to the Lebanese border villages of Debabiyeh, Kwayshra and Annoura, the Lebanese source said Sunday.

A Lebanese army soldier was slightly wounded by a stray bullet from Syria at the Lebanese-Syrian border in Bekayaa, north Lebanon, Lebanon's army said Sunday.

Mostapha Khodor Nouaimi was injured in the foot, treated in a hospital, and released, the Lebanese army information directorate said.

The soldier is part of a joint security unit at the border, according to the Lebanese army.

Syrian soldiers on Saturday shelled Tal Kalakh, a town near the Lebanese border, witnesses told CNN. Intermittent gunfire could be heard into the evening from the Lebanese northern border village of Wadi Khalid.

One man died and his body was returned to Syria in a funeral procession, residents said.

Ambulances for the Red Cross stood by to transfer the injured to Lebanese hospitals.

About 700 people from Syria fled to the northern Lebanese village of Mkaybleh, the mayor of the village said Saturday. Those fleeing were mostly women and children, said Mahamoud Khazaal, the mayor.

Fleming, the spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Saturday that the Syrian refugees are being hosted by people they know in Lebanon, such as friends and relatives.

As such, she said, "there's been no request for humanitarian assistance," but there are contingency plans if needed.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has ordered government officials to assess the needs of the Syrians taking refuge in Lebanese villages.

Demonstrations have rippled across the country since mid-March, and protesters demanding political freedoms have been met by a powerful security crackdown.

Violent clashes after demonstrations on Friday left at least four people dead, a human rights advocate said.

According to Ammar Qurabi, chairman of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, three were killed by gunfire from security forces during those clashes.

The regime has blamed armed groups for the violence. Minister of Information Adnan Mahmoud said on Friday that 98 soldiers and security forces and 22 police have been killed, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

But the demonstrators, emboldened by the tough crackdown and the mass anti-government rallies in other Arab nations this year, have blamed killings on the government.

President Bashar al-Assad has responded to grievances by lifting the country's 48-year-old state of emergency and abolishing the state security court, both of which were key demands of the demonstrators.

The emergency law permitted the government to make preventive arrests and override constitutional and penal code statutes.

CNN's Rima Maktabi and Joe Sterling contributed to this report

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