Syrian rights activists say government troops have stormed a village near the Turkish border, firing machine guns and arresting residents.
Troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad swept into the town of Bdama on Saturday in at least six tanks, 10 armored personnel carriers and other military vehicles. Witnesses said 70 residents were arrested and gunmen set two houses on fire.
Bdama is a short distance from the Turkish border. One activist with the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the town's residents had been supplying refugees as they fled across the border to makeshift tent encampments in Turkey.
More than 10,000 Syrian refugees are now staying there in a vast landscape of white tents. Many of them have fled the Turkish towns to the south that Mr. Assad's troops have targeted in their three-month crackdown on anti-government protests.
With turmoil in Syria spreading, the British Foreign Office on Saturday urged its nationals to leave the country immediately while commercial transportation is still available. It warned them that if they stay, and there is more violent civil disorder, it is “highly unlikely” that the British Embassy in Damascus would be able to help them.
The latest Syrian assault on the restive northwest region came as the United States said it is considering whether war-crimes charges can be brought against Mr. Assad as part of a larger diplomatic effort to get his government to end its crackdown on dissent.
In a telephone conference with reporters Friday, two senior White House officials said the U.S. is also considering economic sanctions against Syria's oil and gas sectors.
The officials said the U.S. is stepping up efforts with its allies as well as regional opposition figures to put pressure on Mr. Assad.
In a column in the pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Mr. Assad's crackdown is putting “himself and his regime on the wrong side of history.” She said Syria's brutality against its people has “shattered his claims to be a reformer.”
Clinton also spoke with her Russian counterpart, trying to get Russia to agree to a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the violence against protesters. Russia and China have so far opposed efforts to draft a resolution.
The diplomatic wrangling comes as Syrian security forces shot and killed at least 18 more anti-government protesters Friday. Activists and witnesses say security forces used live ammunition against protesters who poured into the streets with renewed calls for President Assad's resignation.
Western news reports say at least five of the deaths occurred in the flashpoint city of Homs and two in the eastern town of Deir el-Zour. At least one teenager was among those killed.
Anti-government rallies were also staged in other cities, including Daraa, Latakia and near the capital, Damascus.
The unrest on Friday spilled over into neighboring Lebanon, where two people were killed following a protest against the Assad government. Residents from a Sunni Muslim neighborhood in the city of Tripoli clashed with those from a neighborhood inhabited by members of the Shi'ite Alawite sect in Syria, which includes the Assad family.
Rights activists and witnesses say more than 1,400 civilians have been killed since mid-March and 10,000 detained.
