Beirut: Syrian troops battled army defectors yesterday in clashes that left several military vehicles in flames. The fighting and other violence around the nation killed at least five people, activists said.

The nine-month-old uprising against Syria's authoritarian President Bashar Al Assad has grown increasingly violent in recent months as once-peaceful protesters take up arms and soldiers joining the uprising fight back against the army. The UN says more than 4,000 people have been killed since March.

Opposition activists called for a general strike starting yesterday to add to the pressure on the government to stop its bloody crackdown. Al Assad has refused to buckle under Arab and international pressure to step down and has shown no signs of easing his crackdown, which has included assaults by the military on unarmed protesters.

Now, fighting between loyalist forces and defectors calling themselves the Free Syrian Army threatens to push the confrontation into civil war.

In one of yesterday's clashes, which took place before dawn in the north-western town of Kfar Takharim, two of the military's armoured vehicles were set ablaze, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Similar battles

Three other vehicles were burned in another clash near the southern village of Busra Al Harir, the group said. Similar battles took place in several other parts of the south, said the Observatory and another activist group called the Local Coordination Committees.

The Observatory said two people were killed in the clash with defectors in Kfar Takharim. Two other people who went missing days ago were tortured to death in the central province of Homs, and one person was shot at a checkpoint in the southern province of Daraa, the group said.

The LCC put yesterday's death toll at nine. It was impossible to independently verify either death count.

Jordan embassy under threat

Jordanian security intervened yesterday to prevent hundreds of angry Syrians from storming their country's embassy in Amman.

The demonstrators said they were protesting the beating by embassy guards of five Syrian nationals, who entered the diplomatic mission wearing the flag of the Syrian uprising as headscarves.

The five Syrians reported the incident to Jordanian security authorities, which sent reinforcement to the site after hundreds of pro-reform Syrians converged on the embassy to protest.

The Syrian embassy in Amman has been the scene of several protests since an uprising broke out in Syria nine months ago against the regime of President Bashar Al Assad.

The Syrian community in Jordan comprises tens of thousands who overwhelmingly sympathise with their country's pro-democracy revolt.

More than 1,500 Syrians have taken refuge in Jordan to escape the authorities, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.