Seven soldiers, six civilians dead in Syria

By Douglas Hamilton

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Seven Syrian soldiers were killed by army renegades and six civilians were shot dead on Wednesday as regional pressure tightened on President Bashar al-Assad, with Turkey imposing tough economic sanctions.

The conflict, which began in spring as a crackdown on peaceful anti-government protests, now appears to be sliding towards civil war. Soldiers are defecting with their weapons to take on Assad loyalist troops.

Piling pressure on Assad, Syria's biggest trade partner Turkey suspended all financial credit dealings with Damascus and froze its assets, joining the Arab League in isolating Assad over the military crackdown. Washington urged other states to follow suit.

The world's largest Islamic body, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, urged Syria on Wednesday to "immediately stop the use of excessive force" against its citizens to avert the threat of foreign intervention.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said clashes erupted in the southern town of Dael when security forces moved in during the early morning, and continued well into afternoon.

"Two security force vehicles were blown up. Seven (troops) were killed," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the observatory, adding that 19 people were wounded, four critically.

An activist from the town, in the province of Deraa, said some 30 busloads of security men had stormed into Dael but two of the buses were blown up in fighting between security forces and defectors, the Observatory said. One bus had been empty.

In the north of Syria, at least six civilians were shot dead on Wednesday when security forces broke up an anti-government demonstration in the city of Idlib, the Observatory said.