Heavy fighting reported across Syria
A series of gun battles have erupted across Syria, with army defectors taking up weapons against security forces in clashes that have left at least nine people dead.
As more and more soldiers abandon the Syrian army to switch sides, the nine-month uprising against the government is increasingly descending into armed conflict.
Clashes have broken out across the country, with the worst fighting at Homs, in Syria’s centre, and Deraa in the south.
Sources inside Syria have told the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that hundreds of army defectors are clashing with government forces in and around Deraa.
Fighting was also reported around the town of Busra al-Harir, near Syria’s southern border with Jordan.
A housewife in Busra who did not want to be named told reporters by telephone the town was being hit by machine-gun fire from tanks. Her children were crying.
The sound of explosions and heavy machine-guns was heard there and in Lujah, an area of rocky hills north of the town, where defectors from the army have been hiding and attacking military supply lines, residents and activists said.
“Lujah has been the safest area for defectors to hide because it is difficult for tanks and infantry to infiltrate. The region has caves and secret passageways and extends all the way to Damascus countryside,” an activist, who gave his name as Abu Omar, said.
For the first time, too, the violence has spilled across the border into Jordan, where several Syrians attacked their embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
Embassy officials say the protesters entered the mission claiming they had paperwork to finish and beat up two diplomats, a security guard and other staff.