BICOM

In one of the single deadliest incidents reported during the 9-month uprising, Syrian security forces surrounded and killed more than 100 people in a valley near the Turkish border on Tuesday, opposition groups said. The attack, near the village of Kfar Owaid, came as government forces pressed an offensive in the mountainous region of the Idlib province, in northwestern Syria, that has been gripped for weeks by clashes with military defectors.

Opposition groups say that more than 200 people have been killed in two days of violence in the region. They allege that government forces are trying to crush resistance to President Bashar Assad’s government before an advance team of Arab observers arrives on Thursday to monitor implementation of an Arab league peace initiative. A Foreign Office spokesperson said it was “shocked” by reports of a spike in violence resulting in a hundred deaths. The White House said it was “deeply disturbed” by the reports, and renewed its demand for Assad step down.

There have been of increasing numbers of Syrian army defections in recent days, with some reports of forces defecting with heavy weapons such as tanks. Earlier this week, the regime made a show of force, with high profile live fire exercises demonstrating the capabilities of its air force and rocket arsenal.

Under mounting pressure, Syria on Monday said that it would admit observers to monitor the Arab League peace plan, which calls for the withdrawal of security forces from urban areas and dialogue with the opposition. Opposition activists dismissed the move as a ploy to buy more time for a crackdown that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since March, when largely peaceful antigovernment protests began.