Assad's brother leads troops in crackdown on dissidents

Thousands of elite troops led by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's brother are converging on a restive northern area of the country, looking to deal a decisive blow to the rebellion that is threatening the regime's four-decade grip on power.

Villages neighbouring the town of Jisr al-Shughour, in which 120 members of the Syrian security forces were killed on Sunday, called people in the regional centre yesterday to warn that the convoys of tanks were approaching, a resident and a Syrian activist said.

Syrian forces have lost control of large areas of the northern province, a pro-government newspaper reported, in a rare acknowledgment of cracks in the regime's tight grip after weeks of protest calling for an end to its 40-year rule.

The reports raised the prospect of more bloodshed in Syria's nationwide crackdown on the 11-week revolt. The region borders Turkey, which said yesterday it would open the frontier to Syrians fleeing violence.

In Jisr al-Shughour, where the government said "armed groups" had killed 120 security forces and taken over, a resident said nearby villages had opened their mosques, churches and schools to take in people who fled in terror. Many also crossed into Turkey from Idlib province, said the man, who would give only a nickname, Abu Nader, because he feared reprisals.

Witnesses in nearby villages called to tell people in Jisr al-Shughour that tanks were approaching, Abu Nader said. He said he feared an attack was imminent.

The pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said gunmen had set up boobytraps and ambushes in small villages to thwart incoming troops, and were sheltering in forests and caves.Mustafa Osso, a human rights worker, said witnesses told him that thousands of troops were moving toward Idlib.

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He said many of the forces were from the army's 4th Division, which is commanded by al-Assad's younger brother, Maher. The younger Assad also commands the Republican Guard, whose main job is to protect the regime, and is believed to have played a key role in suppressing the protests. "The number of soldiers is in the thousands," Osso said. He speculated that the government planned a "decisive battle".

Al-Watan said the Syrian army was launching a "very delicate" operation designed to avoid casualties in Jisr al-Shughour. Al-Watan said some people were being held captive by armed groups that control some areas in Jisr al-Shughour and a large area of Idlib.

There was no way to independently confirm the reports from Syria, which severely restricts local media and has expelled foreign journalists from the country.The government routinely blames armed gangs and religious extremists for the recent violence.

Activists had reported fighting in Jisr al-Shughour between loyalist troops and army defectors who no longer wanted to continue the crackdown on protesters seeking Assad's fall. Activists say more than 1,300 Syrians, most of them civilians, have died since the start of the nationwide uprising. Jisr al-Shughour lies 12 miles from the Turkish border and Ankara has said it is prepared to deal with a mass influx of Syrian refugees, though the frontier is relatively quiet for now.

"It is out of the question for us to close the border crossings. We are watching the situation with great concern," prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Many Syrians fervently believe Maher al-Assad is the unidentified man who is shown taking potshots at demonstrators in a sensational video now in wide circulation across the country.

Though neither the video's source nor the gunman's identity can be independently verified, the fact that so many Syrians believe it to be him is a telling insight into the power and fear he has cultivated.

According to Bassam Bitar, a former Syrian diplomat who now lives in exile in the US, Maher al-Assad's control of Syria's security apparatus makes him "first in command, not second in command".