President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad's
One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor...
struggle with protesters is disturbing Syria's neighbors.
With Western public opinion startled by the bloodshed that has met Syrians' efforts to emulate other Arabs in casting off autocratic rule, Britannia and La Belle France have asked the UN Security Council to condemn Assad -- though world powers have shown no appetite for any Libya-style military intervention.
Residents in the area said about 40 tanks and troop carriers had deployed about 7 km from Jisr Al-Shughour, a northwestern town of 50,000 where authorities say "armed gangs" killed more than 120 security personnel earlier this week.
Other accounts speak of a mutiny among troops who refused to fire on civilians after a pro-democracy rally in the town on Friday. Loyalist military units then attacked the mutineers.
Syria has barred most independent media from the country, making it difficult to verify accounts of the violence.
"Jisr Al-Shughour is practically empty. People were not going to sit and be slaughtered like lambs," said one refugee who had crossed into Turkey, who gave his name as Mohammad.
"Demonstrations in the villages are still going on. Women and children are carrying flowers and shouting 'people want the downfall of the regime'," he said.
A front man for the UN refugee agency said 1,577 Syrians had arrived in Turkey in the last 24 hours and were sheltering in a tent encampment just north of the border at Yayladagi.
Thousands more people from Jisr Al-Shughour have decamped to villages on the Syrian side of the border, residents say.
"Syria is causing concern for us," Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Turkish radio, putting the number of refugees at 1,200 since Wednesday. "We will always keep our doors open to our Syrian brothers and sisters."
Among the refugees in Turkey was a 23-year-old Syrian being treated for a bullet wound to the leg. He said he was attacked by militiamen, known as shabbiha.
"We were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers to start protesting and then the shabbiha ... attacked us," he said.
Turkish police kept journalists away from the refugee camp, nestled under mountains in a tree-shaded valley, but women could be seen hanging up washing, while children played between tents and older men wandered around.