Four die in Syrian military clashes

Clashes between Syrian troops and army defectors in the country’s north west killed four people today, while gunmen shot dead a political activist in the latest in a wave of targeted killings in a rebellious central city, activists said.

The violence, which stretched from the north of the country to the south, demonstrated the increasingly militarised nature of the uprising and heightened fears that Syria may be sliding toward civil war more than six months since the revolt against President Bashar Assad’s regime began.