AMMAN: Thousands of Syrian troops backed by armor opened fire in the resort town of Zabadani on the border with Lebanon on Sunday, a day after heavy fighting in the area between army defectors and loyalist forces, residents and activists said. Armored vehicles fired machineguns and anti-aircraft guns as they entered the town, in the foothills of the Anti Lebanon Mountains, 35 km (22 miles) west of Damascus. Troops combed flat farmland near the town on Saturday looking for defectors, ransacked homes, seized cars and arrested at least 100 people, including three female college students suspected of participating in pro-democracy protests, they said. "Soldiers accompanied by Military Intelligence have set up road blocks everywhere. Zabadani is now cut off from Damascus," said one resident who gave his name as Mohamed. Local residents said army defectors fought loyalist troops for several hours on Saturday, and two vehicles belonging to the security police were seen riddled with bullets. Military defections have increased in the last two months, as Assad intensified a military crackdown to crush protests demanding his resignation. The United Nations says the crackdown has killed 3,000 people, including at least 187 children. The authorities have blamed the unrest on armed gangs and say 1,100 troops and police have been killed. The defectors have been mostly Sunni Muslims, who comprise most of the army's rank and file while the officer corps is composed mainly of members of the Alawite sect effectively under the command of Assad's younger brother, Maher. The minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam, expanded its dominance of the state, the military and the secret police, a bloc now underpinning the power structure, when Assad's father, the late Hafez al-Assad, took power in a 1970 coup.
