Syrian troops have regained control of a northwestern town after clashing with soldiers whose decision to side with armed protesters posed a potent threat to the authoritarian regime, Syria's state-run news agency has claimed.
The military push into the border town of Jisr al-Shughour followed a pattern witnessed in other cities and towns where street protests took place demanding political freedoms and an end to Mr Assad's autocratic rule.
Backed by helicopters and tanks, army units moved in after dismantling explosives planted on roads and bridges leading to Jisr al-Shughour, Syria's state-run news agency SANA claimed, reporting "heavy" clashes.
Residents who fled to Turkey said thousands of young men, including soldiers and police who switched sides and joined the revolt against President Bashar Assad, had armed themselves and planted dynamite at the town entrances.
Residents fleeing the assault against northern towns say troops are torching fields and opening fire at random, the head of a Turkish border village hosting refugees said.
A resident who fled today said the army shelled Jisr al-Shughour, then tanks and other heavy armor rolled in from two directions.
As the troops advanced, he said, they fought about 60 army defectors, whose fate was unknown. He said about 200 unarmed men who were guarding the town are believed to have been either killed or detained.
After gaining control of the town, Syrian troops showed reporters four bodies, some still in uniform, that were beheaded. The city's military police building was burned and there were bloodstains in some rooms, which bolstered the reports of a mutiny.
Damascus has banned most foreign correspondents from the country, making it difficult to verify accounts of events.
State television said government forces uncovered mass graves of security men killed and buried by armed groups in Jisr al-Shughour and said their bodies bore marks of "atrocities". It did not give details.
The government said last week that "armed gangs" had killed more than 120 security personnel in the town after large demonstrations there. Refugees and rights groups said the dead were mutinous soldiers, shot for refusing to fire on civilians.
"When the massacre happened in Jisr al-Shughour the army split, or they started fighting each other and blamed it on us," a woman refugee, who refused to give her name, told Turkish news channel NTV.
A senior Western diplomat in Damascus told Reuters: "The official version is improbable. Most people had left Jisr al-Shughour after seeing the regime's scorched earth policy, shelling and the heavy use of armour in the valley."
Thousands have headed for refuge at makeshift camps set up across the Turkish border. Syrians arriving yesterday and the day before told of Assad forces setting their fields and villages aflame and opening fire randomly on northern residents, said Cemil Utanc, the head of the Turkish border village of Guvecci.
"They are using up to 150 tanks and armoured vehicles. Jisr al-Shughour is small and there is not even space to park all this armour. The shelling is nonstop now. Two helicopters are flying overhead and firing their machineguns," one resident said eralier, speaking from a hill overlooking the town.
"Most people have escaped towards Turkey. I heard that a small group of army defectors may have remained because they felt that they had to defend the honour of Jisr al-Shughour, but they must be martyrs by now," he said over the phone, the sound of shelling audible in the background.
The strategic town, among hills on the road between Syria's second city Aleppo and the country's main port of Latakia, had seen large demonstrations in recent weeks, with residents describing a mutiny by security forces whom they said fought other troops to try and prevent the killing of civilians.
More than 5,000 Syrians have now crossed over to Turkey and up to 10,000 have taken shelter among trees near the border since forces commanded by president Assad's brother Maher sent tanks and troops into the northwestern province of Idlib.
The United States has accused the Syrian government of creating a "humanitarian crisis" and called on it to halt its offensive and allow immediate access by the International Committee for the Red Cross to help refugees, detainees and the wounded.
The Syrian official state news agency said "armed terrorist groups" had burnt land in Idlib province as part of a sabotage scheme.
Human rights groups say security forces have killed more than 1,100 Syrian civilians in increasingly bloody efforts to suppress demonstrations calling for Assad's removal, political freedoms and an end to corruption and poverty. The protests were inspired by uprisings against other entrenched autocrats in the Arab world.
At the United Nations Russia and China snubbed security council talks held yesterday to discuss a draft resolution that would condemn Syria's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, UN diplomats said.
Turkey, a Sunni country that had backed Syria's ruling hierarchy, who belong to Syria's minority Alawite sect, has been increasingly critical of president Assad's use of force to quell the protests as they spread to regions near the 800km-long border between the two countries.
Thirty-six protesters were shot dead across Syria on Friday, activists said. Syrian authorities deployed helicopter gunships in the town of Maarat al-Numaan, they added, in the first known use of air power against unrest.
Agencies