8 Syrians Dead, Rebels Wage New Raid as Turkey Slams World 'Silence'
Rebel troops hit offices of Syria's ruling party on Thursday, a day after a daring raid on an intelligence base that prompted Russia to warn that its longtime ally risks "full-scale civil war."
The rocket-propelled grenade attack in northwestern Idlib province, near Turkey, came as security forces killed eight people, including two children, despite an Arab League ultimatum that Syria halt the bloodshed or risk sanctions.
"A group of dissident troops attacked regime youth offices, where security agents were meeting, with rocket-propelled grenades and clashes broke out," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On Wednesday, fighters of the Free Syrian Army, a rebel group formed by army deserters that has inflicted mounting losses on the regular army in recent months, raided an air force intelligence base in Harasta, outside the capital.
On the ground, security forces killed a nine-year-old girl and a man in the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zour, the Observatory said.
Two civilians were killed in the central city of Homs and another four, including a young boy, in Idlib, the watchdog added.
The deaths came after at least 23 people were killed on Wednesday, even as Arab League foreign ministers, who had suspended Syria at the weekend, met in Morocco and gave Damascus three days to halt the bloodshed or risk sanctions.
Ankara, a onetime Assad ally that has become one of its most outspoken critics, joined the Morocco meetings.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped up the rhetoric on Thursday, saying more would be heard from the international community if Syria had rich oil resources like Libya.
"The silence and unresponsiveness of those who have an appetite for Libya to the massacres in Syria is creating irreparable wounds in the conscience of humanity," he charged.
Erdogan is due to meet French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Thursday to discuss Syria.
In Istanbul, the leader of Syria's exiled Muslim Brotherhood said his compatriots would accept Turkish "intervention" in the conflict.
"The Syrian people would accept intervention coming from Turkey, rather than from the West, if its goal was to protect the people," Mohammad Riad Shakfa told a news conference.
On Thursday, Turkish pro-government daily Sabah reported the opposition Syrian National Council, together with the Brotherhood, had asked Turkey to establish a Libya-style no-fly zone in areas of northern Syria where there have been deadly clashes between troops and fugitive dissidents.
Brotherhood leader Mohammed Farouk Tayfour declined comment, saying only that discussions had been held with several governments on "every possible means" to stop the bloodshed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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