BEIRUT — Army defectors killed 27 Syrian government forces Thursday in apparently coordinated attacks that were among the deadliest by rebel troops since the uprising began nine months ago. The escalating unrest prompted Canada to advise thousands of its citizens in Syria to leave.
The fighting began around daybreak in the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s authoritarian regime began in March.
Syria has seen a sharp escalation in armed clashes recently, raising concerns that the country of 22 million is headed toward civil war. The U.N. raised its death toll for the Syrian uprising this week, saying more than 5,000 people have been killed since the revolt began.
“The attacks by army defectors are becoming more coordinated and more deadly. Unfortunately, this will likely lead to a new cycle of escalation by the regime,” said Mohamad Baz zi, a Syria expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Sanctions by Western powers, Turkey and the Arab League have added to the growing pressure on Assad from within Syria.
Defectors from the Free Syrian Army, whose leaders are based in exile in neighboring Turkey, fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a bus carrying policemen into the town of Busra al-Harir on Thursday, killing 12 officers, an activist based nearby said.
That set off clashes with an accompanying force of soldiers. The defectors killed 13 of them, said the activist, who would agree to be identified only by his first name, Omar, for fear of retribution. The fighters killed two more soldiers at a checkpoint, he said.
