Spectre of civil war as Syrian troops face guns

An official said the troops were conducting a “qualitative” operation in the town of Rastan in the central Homs province.

He said the Syrian troops were killed by “gunmen”, although the military is known to shoot troops who refuse to fire on civilians and hundreds of soldiers have defected to the rebels.

Syria is ethnically and religiously divided with the Assad regime and officer class drawn from the minority Alawite group, raising the spectre of a civil war as the largely Sunni rank and file soldiers defect to fight with civilian rebels.

According to the official media, Syrian troops are trying to defeat “gunmen” who are terrorising civilians and shooting soldiers.

Activists said Syrian security forces had been ordered to open fire at thousands of protesters.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least seven people were wounded yesterday in Homs and Hama.

The Observatory said the protests spread from the capital Damascus to the southern province of Daraa, the north-western province of Idlib as well as the central regions of Hama and Homs.