BOYNUYOGUN: Syrian troops backed by tanks and firing heavy machine guns swept into a village near the Turkish border Saturday, cutting food supplies for nearly 2,000 refugees who have so far refused to leave their country.
Many of those men, women and children will have no choice but to flee across the frontier if troops descend on them.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents anti-government protests, said troops backed by six tanks and several armored personnel carriers, entered Bdama in the morning. The village, about 12 miles from the Turkish border, had a bakery that was the sole source of bread to the refugees crowded near the Turkish border.
The town was also supplying medicine and other foodstuffs to the 2,000 Syrians who had hoped not to have to flee to the Turkish tent-city sanctuary.
''We still have some potatoes, rice and powder milk but they will run out soon,'' said Jamil Saeb, one of the Syrians who had so far decided to stay in Syria. ''This is our first day without bread.''
Saeb said there are children who are sick and there is no medicine. Others are picking apples for lack of other food.
''we are living in catastrophic conditions,'' he said. Some women and children were already crossing into Turkey Saturday afternoon.
''We are besieged by the border fence from one side and the Syrian army from the other,'' Saeb said by telephone. ''We are expecting a humanitarian crisis within hours if Turkey does not send aid to us.''
The British Foreign office, meanwhile, urged Britons in Syria to leave the country ''immediately.'' In a statement posted on the website of the British Embassy in Syria, the Foreign Office said Britons should leave ''now by commercial means while these are still operating.''
The statement said those who stay should understand it would be unlikely the British Embassy in Damascus could provide a normal consular service if there was a ''further breakdown in law and order.''
Britain, France, Germany and Portugal will be sponsoring a draft resolution at the UN Security Council to condemn Syria.
The attack on Bdama occurred a day after Syrian forces swept into Maaret al-Numan, a town on the highway linking Damascus, the capital, with Syria's largest city, Aleppo. Saturday's assault on Bdama was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the west.
Also Saturday, the committees raised the death toll in Friday's anti-government protests to 19.
The three-month uprising has proved stunningly resilient despite a relentless crackdown by the military, pervasive security forces and pro-regime gunmen. Human rights activists say more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as President Bashar Assad tries to maintain his grip on power.
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