Syrian forces killed four villagers on Wednesday near Turkey, rights campaigners said, in an expansion of a military campaign to crush dissent against President Bashar al-Assad.
The four were killed in tank-backed assaults on at least four villages in the Jabal al-Zawya region in northwestern Idlib province near the border with Turkey, an activist in Idlib and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Assad, from Syria's Alawite minority sect, an offshoot of Islam, is struggling to put down widening demonstrations in outlying rural and tribal regions, in suburbs of the capital and in cities such as Hama and Homs demanding an end to his autocratic rule.
Mass arrests and heavy deployment of security forces, including an irregular Alawite militia known as shabbiha, have prevented demonstrations in central neighbourhoods of Damascus and in the commercial hub of Aleppo.
Military assaults on towns and villages in Idlib began five weeks ago after large demonstrations across the rural province demanding political freedoms, forcing thousands of refugees to flee to Turkey.
"We are seeing a military escalation following the regime's political escalation," the activist in Idlib, who declined to be named for fear of arrest, told Reuters by phone.
He was referring to the arbitrary arrests of thousands of Syrians that intensified in the last two weeks, according to human rights campaigners.
The arrests continued despite the authorities convening what they described as a "national dialogue" conference composed mostly of Assad supporters. Assad loyalists also attacked the U.S. and French embassies in Damascus.
Assad loyalists in the coastal city of Latakia surrounded the British Council on Wednesday, a main institution for Syrians wanting to learn English.
They threw eggs and tomatoes into the compound while shouting profanities against Britain and Prime Minister David Cameron, but did not enter the premises, a witness said.
AT LEAST 30 ARRESTED
Syrian security forces arrested at least 30 people, including prominent film directors Nabil Maleh and Mohammad Malas, known for works chronicling malaise under Assad family rule, and actress May Skaf, during a pro-democracy protest in Damascus on Wednesday, rights organisations said.
They were among a group of artists who issued a declaration this week denouncing state violence against protesters and demanding accountability for the killings of civilians and the release of thousands of political prisoners held without trial.
"It was a peaceful protest of leading artists and intellectuals. Security forces and shabbiha surrounded and verbally abused them," a statement by the Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah said.
This month, singer Ibrahim Qashou was found dead in the Orontes river in Hama with his throat slit, residents said. He had composed a song entitled "Assad leave", which was repeated by hundreds of thousands of protesters in the city.
The attack was reminiscent of assassinations of Assad family critics in the 1980s inside and outside Syria. At that time, the body of Lebanese journalist Selim al-Lawzi was found with his hand dipped in acid in Lebanon.
International powers, including Turkey, have cautioned Assad against a repeat of massacres from the era of his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, who brutally crushed leftist and Islamist challenges to his rule.
The U.S. and French ambassadors visited Hama in a show of support on Friday. Three days later their embassies were attacked by Assad loyalists. No one was killed in the attacks which were condemned by the United Nations Security Council.
The attacks also drew sharp responses from Washington and Paris, which had led a European drive to rehabilitate Assad internationally in return for stabilising Lebanon.
In the eastern province of Deir al-Zor, two explosions hit minor gas pipelines, residents said. The official state news agency said a pipeline had caught fire due to either dry weather conditions or a leakage in the line.
The growing numbers of protesters have breathed new life into the Syrian opposition. A meeting of Assad opponents in Istanbul ended on Wednesday with a call for the army to side with the protesters.
