General strike urged in embattled Syria

Opposition leaders in Syria said they launched a general strike Sunday in an effort to force President Bashar Assad from power. Meanwhile, bands of army defectors calling themselves the Free Syrian Army clashed violently with security forces in several parts of the country Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Times said the Local Coordination Committees, a network of activists that collects information in the country, reported 23 people were killed Sunday as government security forces fought with armed insurgents and protesters in a number of provinces. Syrian pro-democracy activists say the government is intent on a bloodbath by Monday night if protesters in the city of Homs don't step down. Assad's government issued the directive to clamp down on anti-government protesters in Homs, where reformist demonstrations have been the most visible, CNN reported. Syria has banned foreign journalists from covering the political upheaval that began in January, but citizens are using cell phones to send out news, photos and video. The government is also blocking some access to social networking Internet sites. The main opposition party, the Syrian National Council, issued a statement Saturday saying it had knowledge of a government plan to quash a planned demonstration in Homs, the report said. "Evidence received from reports, videos and information obtained by activists on the ground in Homs indicate that the regime is paving the way to commit a massacre in order to extinguish the revolution in Homs and to discipline, by example, other Syrian cities that have joined the revolution," the party said. The Syrian government made no mention of its intentions in its Sunday morning news releases, the report said.