Syria extends army crackdown on protesters

THOUSANDS of Syrians fled the historic town of Maarat al-Numaan yesterday to escape troops and tanks pushing into the north in a widening military campaign to crush protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

In the tribal east, where Syria’s 380,000 barrels per day of oil is produced, tanks and armoured vehicles deployed in the city of Deir al-Zor and around Albu Kamal on the border with Iraq, a week after tens of thousands of people took to the streets there demanding an end to Assad’s autocratic rule.

Syrian forces pushed toward Maarat al-Numaan, a town of 100,000, which straddles the main north-south highway linking Damascus with Syria’s second city Aleppo, after arresting hundreds of people in villages close to Jisr al-Shughour, near the border with Turkey, residents said.