200 members of Syria's ruling Baath Party from the province of Deraa and surrounding regions have resigned in protest against an attack by security forces on the southern city.
Resigning from the Baath Party, which has ruled Syria since taking power in a 1963 coup, was unthinkable before pro-democracy protests erupted in Deraa on 18 March.
‘In view of the negative stance taken by the leadership of the Arab Socialist Baath Party towards the events in Syria and in Deraa, and after the death of hundreds and the wounding of thousands at the hands of the various security forces, we submit our collective resignation,’ said a declaration signed by the Deraa officials.
A separate declaration said a further 28 Baathists in the restive coastal city of Banias also resigned on Wednesday to protest the ‘practices of the security forces against honourable citizens... and torture and murder they committed’.
A European push for the UN Security Council to condemn Syria's violent crackdown against anti-government protesters collapsed due to resistance from Russia, China and Lebanon, envoys said.
‘There will be no statement,’ a Security Council diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Earlier this week Britain, France, Germany and Portugal circulated to the other 11 council members a draft statement condemning Syria's violent crackdown against protesters and urging restraint by the government, council diplomats said.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who called the Syrian crackdown that has led to what rights groups say are hundreds of civilian deaths ‘abhorrent and deplorable,’ also supported the push for a Security Council condemnation.
She also accused Damascus of seeking help from Iran.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an independent investigation of the killings, though Syria said it was capable of investigating the protesters' deaths itself.
Permanent veto-wielding council members Russia and China have become increasingly critical of the UN-backed intervention to protect civilians in Libya. UN diplomats say that Moscow and Beijing worry the intervention aims to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
‘Their tolerance of U.S. and European attempts to protect civilians in the Middle East appears to have dissipated,’ a U.N. official told Reuters.
Diplomats said the Lebanese delegation also opposed the idea of condemning Syria. Lebanon, the sole Arab Security Council member, has had a troubled relationship with its neighbor and Syrian influence remains strong there.
Last week the council failed to agree a similar statement condemning Yemen's crackdown against protesters, who have demanded greater freedoms and called on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
453 killed in six-week campaign - reports
Human rights groups say security forces have shot dead 453 civilians in a six-week long campaign aimed at crushing the protests.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad poured troops into a suburb of the capital overnight while his tanks pounded Deraa to crush resistance in the southern city where the revolt against his autocratic rule began on 18 March.
Witnesses say white buses brought in hundreds of soldiers in full combat gear into the northern Damascus suburb of Douma, from where pro-democracy protestors have tried to march into centre of the capital in the last two weeks.
More than 2,000 security police deployed in Douma yesterday, manning checkpoints and checking identity cards to arrest pro-democracy sympathisers.
Diplomats said President Assad sent the Fourth Mechanised Division, commanded by his brother Maher, into Deraa on Monday where demonstrations demanding political freedom and an end to corruption erupted more than a month ago.
Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah said security forces have killed at least 35 civilians since they entered Deraa at dawn on Monday.
