Syrian forces kill 4 villagers in renewed assaults (Reuters)

- AMMAN (Reuters) ? Syrian forces killed four villagers on Wednesday in assaults on a northwestern region near Turkey, rights campaigners said, in an expansion of a military campaign to crush dissent against President Bashar al-Assad.

The four were killed in tank-backed assaults on at least four villages in the Jabal al-Zawya region in Idlib province near the border with Turkey, an activist in Idlib and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Military assaults on towns and villages in Idlib began five weeks ago after large demonstrations across the rural province demanding political freedoms, forcing thousands of refugees to flee to Turkey.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110713/wl_nm/us_syria_assault

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