BEIRUT - Hundreds of Syrians, some with gunshot wounds, have crossed into neighbouring Lebanon in search of a refuge from the growing violence in their homeland, a Lebanese security official said Saturday.
Most arriving at the border came after Syrian security forces opened fire on protesters demanding the ouster of President Bashar Assad in demonstrations across Syria on Friday. Syrian activists said 20 people were killed, including two children aged 12 and 13.
The Local Coordination Committees, a group tracking the Syria protests, said most of the deaths occurred in the Barzeh neighbourhood of the capital, Damascus, and in the suburb of al-Kaswa. Others died when security forces opened fire in the central city of Homs, sending residents fleeing to the Lebanese border 30 kilometres away.
The Syrian opposition says some 1,400 people have been killed as the government has cracked down on a movement demanding an end to four decades of autocratic Assad family rule -- a popular uprising renewed each Friday after weekly Muslim prayers.
A prominent Syrian opposition figure, meanwhile, said some 200 regime critics and intellectuals will meet in Damascus on Monday to discuss strategies for a peaceful transition to democracy.
The one-day gathering will be the first such meeting of Damascus-based regime opponents, many of whom have long been persecuted by the Assad government.
Dissident Louay Hussein said Syrian authorities had not objected to the meetingIt will come one week after President Assad, in a nationally televised speech, spoke of convening his own national dialogue to discuss political reforms.
The violence has prompted thousands of Syrians to seek a safe haven in neighbouring countries. Up to 1,000 crossed Friday and overnight into northern Lebanon's Akkar region, near Wadi Khaled, a Lebanese security official said. Most crossed into the border village of Kneiseh from the Syrian village of al-Quseir, where Syrian activists said security forces fired on protesters Friday.
At least six Syrians with gunshot wounds were among the arrivals, the Lebanese official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations. The wounded were receiving treatment in Akkar hospitals.
The new arrivals join thousands of other Syrians who fled to Lebanon in May and early June, most during the Syrian military's crackdown on the border town of Talkalakh, a few minutes' walk from Lebanon's Wadi Khaled.
Unlike the earlier exodus, when the displaced Syrians camped out on the Lebanese side of the border, many new arrivals were staying with relatives or elsewhere in Beirut, the Lebanese official said. He said some of those who crossed Friday returned early Saturday.
The military's recent sweep through northwestern Syria, where armed resistance flared in early June, also has sent more than 11,700 refugees fleeing across the border to refugee camps in Turkey.
Syrian authorities have called on the refugees to return, after regaining control over the restive region in northern Syria's Idlib province, but most have rejected the offer, fearing arrest or persecution upon return.
Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted the head of the Syrian Red Crescent, Abdurrahman Attar, as telling Turkish journalists in Damascus that his organization wanted to visit the camps to speak to those who want to return to Syria.
He was quoted as saying his humanitarian organization would guarantee that Syrian security agencies will leave returnees alone. "They will not be called to account," he said.
One refugee on the Turkish side told The Associated Press he remained suspicious. "They want to see which of the families escaped and came here," said this man, who wouldn't give his name.
Hussein, a prominent Syrian writer and opposition figure, said Monday's planned consultations by 200 regime opponents would take place under the slogan, "All for Syria within a civil and democratic state."
Syrian authorities were informed of the meeting, but there would be no government representation, he told the AP.
"Three months into the protest movement and the government crackdown, the time is now ripe for such a meeting," he said.
He said he hoped the fact the government was not blocking it reflects a will to allow some freedom of expression.
Well-known Syrian writer Michel Kilo, who spent years in Syrian prisons for his criticism of the regime, said the intellectuals gathering Monday have "their own choices and positions" for ways of moving Syria "to a civil and democratic state." He said no one from outside the country has been invited, and participants belong to no political faction.
Whether such a group might produce partners for President Assad's proposed "national dialogue" remains to be seen.
In his speech last Monday, Assad said he was forming a committee to study constitutional amendments, including one that would open the way to political parties other than the ruling Baath Party. He said a package of reforms was expected by September or no later than the end of the year.
Two days later, his foreign minister, Walid Moallem, told reporters Damascus would soon present "an unprecedented example of democracy" in the troubled Middle East. He called for regime opponents to enter into political talks.
"Whoever wants to test our seriousness should come to the national dialogue to be a partner in shaping the future," he said.
Some prominent dissidents rejected such overtures, however, citing what they said was previous Assad talk of reform that produced no political change.
That sentiment was echoed in Friday's nationwide protests, in which thousands called for Assad's ouster.
"Our revolution is strong! Assad has lost legitimacy!" a YouTube video showed protesters chanting Friday in Zabadani, a suburb of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
