Dubai: A bus carrying fleeing civilians was shot at near the town of Sermin in the north western province of Idlib yesterday by unidentified assailants, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The group said 10 civilians who were killed were on their way to Turkey fleeing an assault in Sermin where a teenager was killed and dozens wounded. The escalation came just hours after the Security Council passed a statement urging President Bashar Al Assad and his foes to implement "fully and immediately" international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan.
Al Assad's wife Asma, faces an EU travel ban and asset freeze along with other members of Al Assad's family, diplomats said yesterday. Asma Al Assad is on a list of 12 Syrians, including a handful of the president's relatives, to be put to European Union foreign ministers today for a decision to bar them from travel and freeze their accounts.
Boatload of refugees
As the pace of the Syrian government's assault has quickened in recent days, so has the traffic on the Orontes river. The number of exiles keeps growing, filling refugee camps and towns on the border, with their fearful tales of home. A Turkish official said about 1,500 Syrians crossed the border last month, pushing the numbers of refugees in the region's camps past 11,000.