Syrian troops surround rebel town

Across the country, crowds undaunted by the crackdown in Jisr al-Shughour and elsewhere gathered for renewed protests after prayers.

Activists said security forces shot and killed two people at a protest in the southern province of Daraa, and one person at a demonstration in suburban Damascus, the capital.

Thousands of residents who have fled into Turkey have depicted a week of revolt and mayhem in Jisr al-Shughour, saying Syrian police turned their guns on each other and soldiers shed their uniforms rather than fire on protesters.

Syrian state television said the operation aims to restore security in the town.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has used his close ties to President Bashar Assad to press the Syrian leader to make concessions to the protesters, described the crackdown as “savagery.”

His government has said it will not shut its border to Syrians fleeing violence.

Witnesses in Jisr al-Shughour said most of the town’s 45,000 residents had abandoned their homes.

Citing contacts inside Syria, Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 10,000 soldiers, including elite units, were involved. Helicopters ferried some troops to the area, he said.

Syrian television said the operation to “liberate” the town from “armed gangs” came in response to the appeals of residents who were terrorised by the groups. The government has often blamed violence on gunmen and Islamic extremists, though there are widespread accounts of security forces firing on unarmed protesters.

About 2,800 Syrian refugees have crossed into Turkey since the nationwide uprising against Assad began three months ago, with most fleeing in the last two days.

The military operations are part of a crackdown on a three-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.

Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people have died in the crackdown on the 11-week uprising, most of them unarmed civilians. A government spokeswoman countered that a total of 500 security forces had died in the revolt.

Mr Erdogan said in an interview on ATV television that some images coming out of Syria were “unpalatable” and suggested Turkey could support a UN Security Council decision against Syria.

“They are not acting in a humane manner,” he said. “This is savagery.”

Meanwhile, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appealed to Syria to grant the neutral body access to those wounded or detained in clashes with security forces.

Jakob Kellenberger, the ICRC president, said the Geneva-based aid group has not been allowed “meaningful access” to those parts of the country where violence is occurring.

He said some limited visits have taken place to Daraa, Tartous and Homs in the past month, but they were not sufficient for the Red Cross to carry out its work.

Mr Kellenberger said: “I stand ready to go to Syria myself to hold talks with the authorities.”

The unrest in Syria has prompted a split within the UN Security Council, where France and Britain have proposed a resolution to condemn the government’s actions.

But other nations on the council, including Brazil, China and Russia, say such a resolution – which does not propose concrete action - could further inflame tensions in an already volatile region.