DAMASCUS, June 25, (Agencies): Syrian tanks on Saturday rolled into a village on the border with Turkey where workers are scrambling to erect a huge tent city for fear of a new exodus of refugees from the crackdown.
As families across Syria mourned 18 protesters gunned down by security forces on Friday, activists said troops backed by tanks rumbled into Al-Najia village near Jisr al-Shughur, a town which the army seized on June 12 after repeated protests.
The operation came just days after the army moved into Khirbet al-Joz, another village near the border, and amid EU condemnation of Syria’s resort to “shocking violence” against peaceful dissent.
“The army backed by tanks and troop carriers entered Al-Najia as part of its deployment in the province of Idlib,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP in Nicosia.
Al-Najia lies on the road linking the northwestern city of Latakia to Jisr al-Shughur — home to 50,000 people, most of whom fled after the army seized the town, many fleeing across the border to Turkey.
Syrian opposition figures announced they will hold a meeting in Damascus on Monday to discuss “how to solve the crisis” in the Arab country rocked by unprecedented pro-democracy protests since mid-March.
“We will talk so that we can formulate a national strategy on how to end Syria’s current crisis,” Abdel Karim Rihawi, president of the Syrian League for Human Rights, told AFP.
But the grouping of more than 100 independents with no ties to political parties is not the “spokesperson of protesters in the street,” the rights activist added.
The head of the Syrian Red Crescent said Saturday that Syrian refugees in Turkey will not face retribution or interrogation if they return to their country, Anatolia news agency reported.
“We, as the Red Crescent, guarantee that the Syrian government will not call (the refugees) to account and under no circumstances will security forces take decisions about them,” Abdurrahman Attar told Turkish reporters in Damascus, Anatolia said.
“With the comprehensive amnesty declared, they would not be interrogated,” Attar said.
Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, have crossed into neighboring Lebanon in search of a refuge from the growing violence in their homeland, a Lebanese security official said Saturday.
Most arriving at the border came shortly after Syrian security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters across Syria on Friday. Syrian activists said 20 people were killed, including two children aged 12 and 13.

Saudi Arabia
Dozens of people wearing white shrouds have staged a peaceful march in the oil-producing region of eastern Saudi Arabia, demanding basic rights and the release of prisoners, according to a video posted on YouTube.
The video recording, dated June 24, showed some 30 men, many in Western clothes, marching with white shrouds that symbolise willingness to die as martyrs, in the mainly Shi’ite city of Qatif on Friday.
It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the recording, but Shi’ites have often held small protests in the area.
A Saudi Interior Ministry spokesman said he was not aware of the report but would check with local police.
A local rights activist said the protest, inspired by a government crackdown on fellow Shi’ites in neighbouring Bahrain, was the first one of its kind in the area in two months.
“The demonstrators were not calling for bringing down the regime. They were simply demanding basic rights and an end to sectarian discrimination,” Mohammed al-Said said by telephone.
He said activists from the Shi’ite minority in the area had suspended protests in April following government promises to start a dialogue with them and free detainees.
Sunni-Muslim-ruled Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter and a major US ally, does not tolerate any form of public dissent. Scattered protests have been held in the past in eastern Saudi Arabia, where mostly Shi’ite Muslims live.
Although the demonstrators had concealed their faces with checkered grey or black traditional Arab headscarves, the footage was mostly filmed from the back, apparently as extra security to prevent authorities from identifying the protesters.
Some of the demonstrators had inscribed the text of Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on their backs. “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile,” read the red text, written in bold Arabic letters.
The demonstrators also voiced solidarity with activists in Bahrain, facing a continuing crackdown from the government after protests were crushed in March.
Saudi Arabia, unnerved by Bahrain’s uprising, had sent in troops after the small kingdom asked Gulf neighbours to support its crackdown.
“Saudi army out, Bahrain is free,” the protesters in Qatif chanted.
A separate and smaller night protest dated June 22 was posted on YouTube, showing a handful of young men marching in the town of Awwamiya while chanting “God is Greatest”.
Activists also released still pictures of a separate protest by veiled women in full black garb, who also donned white shrouds on their backs to symbolise martyrdom marching in eastern Saudi Arabia.
“We demand the release of prisoners forgotten (for) 16 years),” one placard in red and blue read.
“We will take all paths, and will not shy away from our prisoners, rights,” another placard read.