Syrian troops ordered to crush uprising

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syrian security forces besieging the flash-point city of Daraa have been ordered to use "any means necessary" to crush the rebellion that sparked the weeks-long uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad, a Syrian military source said Saturday.

The claim by the military official resembles the take-no-prisoners strategy used by Assad's father, Hafez Assad, to put down a 1982 rebellion in the central city of Hama.

"There have been commands to attend to the situation in Dara as soon as possible and with any means necessary," the military source told the Los Angeles Times in a brief conversation conducted over the Internet. "Even if this means that the city is to be burned down."

Activists said that the death toll in Syria has climbed as a result of the crackdown.

Deadly clashes over the past week, mostly in the southern province of Daraa, pushed the number of deaths nationwide to more than 550 since the revolt began in mid-March, Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, and Ammar Qurabi, head of Syria's National Organization for Human Rights, said Saturday.

The protests in Syria have presented the greatest challenge to Assad's rule since he inherited power from his father 11 years ago. They follow unrest that has unseated rulers in Egypt and Tunisia, sparked violent repression in Libya and Bahrain and helped push oil prices up more than 20 percent this year.

In response to protests, Assad has ended an emergency rule that was in place from 1963 and pledged future political and economic reforms that have failed to halt the spread of demonstrations.

Assad has blamed the uprising on foreign conspirators, who he said are exploiting legitimate expressions of popular grievance and are motivated by Syria's opposition to Israel. Syria supports the Islamist movements Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and is an ally of Iran.

At least 65 people died in violence Friday and about 100 people in Homs are missing, Qurabi said. A 10-year-old girl was killed in the port city of Latakia and the bodies of 83 people were found in a refrigerator used to keep agricultural and meat products in the city of Daraa, Merhi said.