Syria threatens to execute 'terrorists' under new law

Syria will execute anyone who participates in terrorist acts or distributes weapons, state television announced Tuesday, in the latest escalation against an uprising the United Nations estimates has claimed about 5,000 lives since March.


The announcement comes as two opposition groups claimed that more than 100 people were killed Monday, which would be the single deadliest known day of the protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that dozens of Syrian army defectors were gunned down as they tried to flee their posts in Idlib.

"On Monday there were 60 to 70 army deserters killed while they were trying to run away from their military positions," said the London-based group's Rami Abdel Rahman.

He said another 40 civilians were killed the same day "across Syria during house-to-house raids, arrests, and clashes between army defectors and the Syrian army."

"Monday may have been a day with the highest death toll in Syria, between 100 and 110 killed in total," he said.

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Source: cnn.com