BEIRUT: Elite Syrian troops backed by helicopters and tanks regained control Sunday of a town where police and soldiers joined forces with the protesters they were ordered to shoot – a decisive assault from a government prepared for an all-out battle to keep power. Troops led by the president's brother shelled Jisr Al-Shughour as the gunships hovered overhead, paving the way for scores of tanks and armored personnel carriers to roll in from two directions. By early afternoon, the sounds of battle faded. The army was in control. Sunday's developments, and actions by opponents of the Syrian government, marked a major departure from what had been a largely peaceful protest movement. Among them: the discovery of a mass grave filled with uniformed bodies and the increasing willingness of mutineers and outgunned residents to fight back. President Bashar Al-Assad's response in Jisr Al-Shughour, the first town to spin out of government control since the uprising began in mid-March, mirrored his father's 1980 assault there. It was a clear message to anyone contemplating defiance. Syrians who were among thousands to flee for the nearby Turkish border said about 60 mutineers were defending the town alongside some 200 unarmed residents. Their fate was unknown late Sunday, but the government reported three deaths in the fighting – one of its own soldiers and two unidentified men. “The Syrian army is fighting itself,” said Muhieddine Lathkani, a London-based Syrian writer and intellectual. Troops on Sunday removed 10 uniformed bodies from a mass grave in front of the Military Police building. At least four of the bodies were beheaded or struck on the head with an ax, according to an Associated Press reporter who was invited to accompany the Syrian forces. The building was burned and there were bloodstains in some rooms, which bolstered the reports of the mutiny. Elite forces led were ordered to the northern province of Idlib, a possible sign that the military no longer fully trusted its conscripts. In Washington, US Sen. Lindsey Graham raised the possibility of an international force like the one in Libya. “But it's going to take regional and international cooperation to get there. But if you really care about the Syrian people, preventing them from being slaughtered, you need to put on the table all options, including a model like we have in Libya,” Graham, R-S.C., told CBS' “Face the Nation”.
