Syrians voted in a parliamentary election yesterday touted by authorities as a milestone of political reform, but dismissed by the opposition as a facade while people are killed every day in an anti-government uprising.

Syrian soldiers killed 19 people in fighting to retake Damascus suburbs from rebels, activists said, a day after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission in Syria because of mounting violence.

THE killing of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi fuelled anti-government rallies across Syria after Friday prayers and security forces killed 13 people in a continued crackdown on protesters seeking President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, activists said.

SYRIAN protesters have called for international protection from a military crackdown on nearly six months of nationwide demonstrations demanding an end to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

SYRIAN tanks and troops swept into two north-western towns near the Turkish border, killing one person and wounding 13 according to activists, as Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of aiming guns at its own people.

PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad extended a tank onslaught in Syria’s Sunni Muslim tribal heartland, residents said, in an escalating crackdown on protesters that prompted an extraordinary rebuke from the Saudi king warning the Syrian leader to adopt reforms or risk defeat.

SYRIAN tanks stormed a city in the east of the country yesterday, crushing makeshift barricades, opening fire and seizing the central square, residents said, in a fresh crackdown that activists claimed killed dozens of civilians.

SYRIAN security forces shot dead seven people during clashes in two cities between President Bashar al-Assad’s loyalists and protesters demanding his removal, an activist said.

THE G8 leaders promised $20 billion (€14bn) in aid to Tunisia and Egypt yesterday and held out the prospect of billions more to foster the Arab Spring and the new democracies emerging from popular uprisings.