Guvecci, Turkey - Syrian security forces made sweeping arrests Thursday, randomly detaining males above the age of 16 in a northwestern province that has been under military siege for a week, a Syrian human rights activist said. Mustafa Osso said the arrests were mainly concentrated in the Jisr al-Shughour area, the town of Maaret al-Numan and nearby villages, where the army has been massing troops for days in what appears to be a preparation for a fresh military operation. Osso added that troops opened fire early Thursday in the outskirts of Maaret al-Numan, a town of 100,000 on the highway linking Damascus with Syria's second-largest city, Aleppo. No casualties were reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and buses used to transport anti-terrorism forces were deploying around the town of Khan Sheikhon south of Maaret al-Numan. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has unleashed the military to crush a popular uprising against his authoritarian rule. Human rights activists say more than 1400 Syrians have been killed since the uprising began in mid-March. Osso said said the number of people detained daily in the area is at least 300. The tension in the northwestern Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, has forced some 500 Syrians flee the country since Wednesday - raising the number of people who sought refuge in Turkey to 8,900, according to Turkish authorities. On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Syria's former army chief of staff, Hassan Turkmani, special envoy of the Syrian government. No announcement was made following the meeting. After visiting refugee camps in Hatay province on Wednesday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at the airport that he would also meet with Turkmani on Thursday morning. "We hope that the situation in Syria will be improved both in the sense of reform process and security situation," Davutoglu said. Turkey and Syria once nearly went to war, but the two countries have cultivated warm relations in recent years, lifting travel visa requirements for their citizens and promoting business ties. By allowing Syrian refugees, the Turkish government is playing the role of a humanitarian provider even as it urges the Assad regime to stop its crackdown and implement democratic reforms.
