Syrian troops mass on Turkish border

Syrian troops pushed to the Turkish border Thursday in their sweep against a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement, sending panicked refugees, including children, rushing across the frontier to safe havens in Turkey.

An al-Jazeera correspondent on the Turkish side reported that she could see Syrian troops as close as about 500 yards from the border.

Syrian soldiers patrolled in military vehicles and on foot around the border village of Khirbet al-Jouz, according to Associated Press journalists who watched their movements from the Turkish side. The Local Coordinating Committees, which track the Syrian protest movement, said residents reported tanks had entered the village and snipers were spotted on rooftops. The group cited residents on the ground in the village.

Syria has banned foreign journalists and restricted local media, making it nearly impossible to independently confirm the accounts.

Syria's move to mass troops near the border with Turkey could escalate the crisis in the region and the U.S. is discussing the issue with Turkish officials, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday.

"Unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only now affecting their own citizens but endangering the potential of border clashes, then we're going to see an escalation of conflict in the area,'' Clinton told reporters.

The deployment was the closest Syrian troops had come to Turkey since the military operation in the area began two weeks ago as Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces tried to extinguish any chance the opposition could gain a territorial base for a wider rebellion. The army's main thrust came against the town of Jisr al-Shughour, where armed anti-government resistance flared in early June.

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The European Union, meanwhile, announced it was slapping new sanctions on the Syrian regime because of the "gravity of the situation," in which the Syrian opposition says 1,400 people have been killed in a relentless government crackdown. The sanctions will target seven more individuals and four companies in a bid to stop the crackdown against protests.

The regime blames foreign conspirators and thugs for the unrest, but the protesters deny any foreign influence in their pro-democracy movement.

Tanks, snipersAlso on Thursday, activists told The Associated Press that troops backed by tanks and snipers entered a village along the border.

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More than 11,000 Syrians are housed or seeking shelter in Turkish refugee camps, including 600 who crossed over on Thursday, the Turkish Red Crescent said. The refugees came in a convoy of about 20 minibuses and some rushed on foot across the border, to be met by Turkish soldiers and escorted to nearby camps.

Some refugees glanced behind them as they crossed into Turkey, as though fearful of being chased. Later, another convoy of nine minibuses was seen ferrying refugees to the Turkish camps.

On Wednesday, the Syrian regime lashed out at European governments for threatening a new round of sanctions and accused the West of trying to sow chaos and conflict in the Arab nation.

But Foreign Minister Walid Moallem also reiterated the president's call for national dialogue and spoke of democracy over the horizon — a bold assertion after more than four decades of iron-fisted rule by the Assad family and months of bloody reprisals.

It was the regime's latest attempt to blunt the widespread demonstrations, a movement that was inspired by pro-democracy upheavals elsewhere in the Middle East.

A skeptical opposition rejected the overture while the Syrian military is occupying towns and shooting protesters. Seven were reported killed on Tuesday.

The EU official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The 27-member bloc also has an embargo on sales of arms and equipment that can be used to suppress demonstrations.

Moallem said the suggestion "amounts to (an act) of war" and warned "we will forget that Europe is on the map."

"Stop intervening in Syria's affairs, do not stir chaos nor strife, the Syrian people ... are capable of making their own future away from you," he said. "Any external intervention is rejected."