Amman: Syrians fled a restive town near the Turkish border on Tuesday, fearing bloodshed as troops with tanks approached, under orders to hit back after the government accused armed bands there of killing scores of its security men.
Though accounts of days of killing in Jisr al-Shughour ranged from an official version of gunmen ambushing troops to residents' reports of an army mutiny, it triggered international alarm that violence may enter a new and bloodier phase after three months of popular unrest that has left over 1,000 dead.
France and Britain, allies in the war against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, took a lead in pushing UN moves against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But Russia, citing NATO's inconclusive bombing of Tripoli, said it would veto intervention against Syria in the United Nations Security Council.
In a rare sign of dissent within the Syrian elite, a French television channel aired a statement in which Assad's ambassador to Paris denounced the violence against demonstrators and said she resigned. Syrian state media later denied she had done so.
At Jisr al-Shughour, home to tens of thousands of people, residents said they were taking cover and bracing for attacks.
"The army is taking up position around Jisr al-Shughour," one anti-government activist told Reuters by telephone, saying residents has seen troops approaching the northeastern town from Aleppo, Syria's second city, and from Latakia on the coast.
"Most people have left the town because they are scared," he said, asking not to be named for his own safety. "They know the deaths will be high. People have gone to nearby villages close to the Turkish border. The doctors and nurses have also left."
On Monday, Information Minister Adnan Mahmoud said army units would carry out their "national duty to restore security".
The government has expelled independent journalists, making it hard to determine clearly what is happening in the country.
Despite enthusiasm for pro-democracy movements that have unseated dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, few Western leaders -- let alone their autocratic Arab partners -- have shown a will to intervene in Syria, an Iranian ally whose volatile mix of ethnic and religious groups sits astride a web of regional conflicts.
AMBASSADOR QUITS
Assad's family and supporters from the minority Alawite sect have dominated Syria since his late father seized power 41 years ago. He has responded with promises of reform, and a crackdown on protesters in towns across the country. His officials accuse radical Islamists of fomenting a violent, armed revolt.
Western powers have raised the alarm. British Foreign Secretary William Hague, in some of London's strongest language yet against the 45-year-old Assad, told parliament: "President Assad is losing legitimacy and should reform or step aside." He said European governments were looking at further sanctions.
"We are working to persuade other countries that the Security Council has a responsibility to speak out," Hague added. Russia appears opposed to a general condemnation of Assad, let alone authorising military action against him.
For France, the former colonial power in Syria, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he was ready to ask the Security Council to condemn Syria: ""We'll see what the Russians will do.
"If they veto, they will take their responsibility."
U.S. President Barack Obama, who last month urged Assad to lead a transition to democracy or "get out of the way", did not mention Syria in remarks at a news briefing on Tuesday.
But in Brussels, Russia's envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said: "The prospect of a U.N. Security Council resolution that's along the same lines as Resolution 1973 on Libya will not be supported by my country ... The use of force, as Libya shows, does not provide answers."
Veto-holding Russia abstained on the Libya vote, allowing NATO to begin a bombing campaign that Western powers say saved civilians in rebel-held Benghazi from an onslaught by Gaddafi's forces, but which has failed to dislodge the Libyan leader.
BLOODSHED IN TOWN
Just what has happened in Jisr al-Shughour is unclear.
Official accounts say gunmen roaming the town and setting fire to government buildings inflicted an extremely high death toll of over 120 on security men, said to have been killed in an ambush and attacks on a post office and a security post.
State television aired footage of at least five dead soldiers and police who it said were victims of an "ambush by armed gangs". But residents and anti-government activists disputed that account, saying the casualties followed a mutiny among forces sent to quell civilian protests. Assad loyalists and mutineers then fought each other around the town, they said.
Fears of a sharp increase in the level of violence are informed by memories of 1982, when the forces of Assad's father, Hafez al-Assad, crushed an armed Islamist revolt in the city of Hama, killing many thousands and razing the town's old centre.
Jisr al-Shughour residents said violence began when scores of civilians were killed in a crackdown on the hill town.
They said security men had raided homes and made scores of arbitrary arrests after the largest pro-democracy protest yet held in the town, on Friday. At least five people were killed.
The killings enraged the townsfolk and prompted defections from security police and troops belonging, like most people in Jisr al-Shughour, to Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, they said. Assad and many of his army and security commanders are Alawites.
Neighbouring countries, including Israel and Turkey, worry about any chaos that could set off sectarian conflict and the emergence of violent, radical Islamists, as happened in nearby Iraq after the U.S. invasion of 2003.
VARIED ACCOUNTS
"Military intelligence agents and security police stormed the town on Monday. Snipers began firing at people who dared go out in the streets. Bodies lay in the streets. Around 100 police and soldiers defected and stood with us," one resident said by phone, adding that six military intelligence agents were killed.
He said pro-Assad Alawite gunmen from neighbouring villages, known as 'shabbiha', had been seen around Jisr al-Shughour.
Many analysts with close contacts on the ground inside Syria were reluctant to be identified when interviewed. One analyst based in Damascus said violence by security forces, who are also detaining and torturing people, was creating a violent backlash.
"Growing numbers of protesters have been pushed to take up arms, which are also being smuggled into the country at an alarming pace," said the analyst for an international organisation.
The Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah said the 120 people killed were mostly civilians, or troops apparently shot dead by security agents who refused to join in the crackdown.
"The authorities are repeating their pattern of killings. They choose the town or city where demonstrations have been most vibrant and punish the population," a Sawasiah spokesman said.
Wissam Tarif, director of human rights organisation Insan, said the fighting pitted rival army units against each other.
"An army unit or division arrived in the area in the morning. It seems then another unit arrived to contain the mutiny," Tarif told Reuters. He said he had spoken to several people in Jisr al-Shughour who confirmed that account.
A Western diplomat in the region said he took the mutiny reports seriously, although he had no first-hand knowledge of events in Jisr al-Shughour. "It is plausible that the violent response to the protesters is causing widening cracks on sectarian lines within the army," he said.
Another resident, a history teacher who gave his name as Ahmed, said clashes had begun on Saturday when snipers on the roof of the post office fired at a funeral for six protesters killed the day before. Mourners then set the post office ablaze.
State television said eight members of the security forces were killed when gunmen attacked the post office building.
It said at least 20 more were killed in an ambush by "armed gangs", and 82 in an attack on a security post. It said the overall death toll for security forces topped 120.
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