JOIN USThe latest bloodletting came as thousands of protesters took to the streets in defiance of massive security deployments to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors, activists said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for restraint over the Syria crisis, after talks with his French counterpart who accused President Bashar al-Assad of being deaf to pressure.
“We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position,” Putin told a Moscow news
conference the day after his foreign minister had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.
Turkey said the risk of civil war was real — a warning also echoed by analysts monitoring developments in Syria amid growing reports that mutinous soldiers are attacking regime targets.
The Arab League said, meanwhile, it was examining a Syrian request to make changes to a proposal to send 500 observers to Damascus to help implement a peace plan.
Facing growing isolation, Syria has been told by its Arab peers to stop the lethal repression against protesters by 2200 GMT on Saturday or risk sanctions, and the Arab League has voted to expel it from the 22-member bloc.
The repression against protests that erupted in mid-March has claimed more than 3,500 lives so far, according to UN estimates.