Syrians flee to Lebanon to avoid crackdown

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Hundreds of Syrians fled to neighboring Lebanon Saturday to escape a violent crackdown against an anti-government uprising that has claimed the lives of more than 800 civilians, Lebanese security officials and a leading human rights group said.

In a 24-hour span, security forces killed at least 10 Syrian protesters -- four in the central city of Homs, two in the southern city of Daraa and three in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus -- Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights, said Saturday.

President Bashar Assad, meanwhile, reportedly has set up a committee to lead a dialogue with the opposition, the latest offer by the regime as it struggles to end the unrest threatening his family's 40-year-old dynasty.

Protesters have been taking to the streets in a number of Syrian cities for the past two months to try to force Assad to introduce reforms or resign from office, as leaders in Tunisia and Egypt already have. The government has responded by sending the army onto the streets to counter the demonstrators.

The Lebanese security officials said cracks of gunfire from the western Syrian town of Talkalakh were heard on the Lebanese side of the border Saturday.

More than 5,000 Syrians have fled the area in the past weeks, with more than 500 people crossing the border Saturday alone, the officials said.

Qurabi said that with the latest deaths, the numbers of civilians killed since the protests began in mid-March reached at least 801.

-- Combined news services