Syrian troops, tanks attack town near Turkey

[Turborama]

Source: AP Via CBS

June 18, 2011 10:50 AM | BOYNUYOGUN REFUGEE CAMP, Turkey — Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy machine guns swept into a village near the Turkish border Saturday, the latest in a series of intensified army operations in the northwest where there have been heavy clashes between loyalist troops and defectors.

The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents anti-government protests, said troops backed by six tanks and several armored personnel carriers, entered Bdama in the morning. The village is about 12 miles from the Turkish border.

The British Foreign office urged Britons in Syria to leave the country "immediately." In a statement posted on the website of the British Embassy in Syria, the Foreign Office said Britons should leave "now by commercial means while these are still operating."

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The three-month uprising has proved stunningly resilient despite a relentless crackdown by the military, pervasive security forces and pro-regime gunmen. Human rights activists say more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as President Bashar Assad tries to maintain his grip on power.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/18/501364/main20072246.shtml

[Turborama]

1. Al Jazeera English:Syrian forces storm town near Turkey border

Witnesses say troops backed by armour sweep into Bdama, burning houses and arresting dozens of people.
Last Modified: June 18 2011 15:23

Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad stormed Bdama near the Turkish border, burning houses and arresting dozens of people, witnesses said.

The latest assault on Saturday followed another Friday of protests, which have grown in size, despite Assad's wide-ranging military campaign to crush a three-month uprising. Security forces shot dead 19 protesters on Friday, activists said.

"They came at 7am to Bdama. I counted nine tanks, 10 armoured carriers, 20 jeeps and 10 buses. I saw shabbiha (pro-Assad gunmen) setting fire to two houses," said Saria Hammouda, a lawyer living in the border town, in the Jisr al-Shughur region, where thousands of Syrians had fled to nearby Turkey after the army clamped down on the area earlier in the month.

Saturday's violence centred around Bdama, about 2km from the Turkish border, and is one of the epicentres providing food and supplies to several thousand other Syrians who have escaped the violence from frontier villages, but chose to take shelter temporarily in fields on the Syrian side of the boundary.

More: http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/06/201161814203266684.html

Syria Live Blog: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Syria