Syrian troops pushed towards the Lebanese border as they pressed a deadly crackdown on dissent in central towns, where gunfire rattled overnight.
The latest violence in the town of Kseir, near the flashpoint city of Homs, forced 'hundreds' of people to flee over the border into Lebanon, activists said.
The exodus came as Turkey, where some 12,000 Syrians have already taken refuge in recent weeks, scrambled to build a border tent city to accommodate a possible new influx of refugees.
Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said shots rang out overnight in Kseir, 15km from the border with Lebanon, and in Homs.
Four civilians were shot dead by security forces yesterday, two of them in Kseir and the other two in Kiswah, south of the capital.
Activists say security forces have bolstered their presence in Kseir since Friday while troops have been controlling areas of Homs for several days, as part of a policy to crush pro-democracy protests.
The sweep against the opponents of the autocratic regime of President Bashar al-Assad has also seen troops backed by tanks storm villages near the border with Turkey.
Yesterday, tanks rumbled into Al-Najia, after similar operations in Jisr al-Shughur and Khirbet al-Joz, where troops deployed on Thursday.
Al-Najia is on the road linking the northwestern city of Latakia to Jisr al-Shughur, which was home to 50,000 people, most of whom fled after the army seized the town, with many crossing into Turkey.
Meanwhile, human rights groups have said that up to ten people may have been killed overnight.
