The Syrian regime ordered its army to enter the besieged town of Jisr al-Shughour on Friday as pro-democracy demonstrations across the country were met with gunfire, leaving more than 20 dead, according to activists.
Over the past few days refugees have flooded across the border into Turkey, where officials say almost 3,000 Syrians have made their way to camps to escape the fighting. Most have walked over rolling hills from the northern town that has been menaced all week by Syrian tanks and troops, who finally entered Jisr al-Shughour just after daybreak.
Those who had reached Turkey were unable to contact relatives that had stayed behind, with all lines to the town cut. Anecdotal reports suggested Jisr al-Shughour has been largely abandoned. There were no means of establishing what was taking place during the largest operation mounted by the Syrian army since the initial popular uprising of 15 March.
The town – normally inhabited by 41,000 people – has become a focal point of the Syrian revolution ever since President Bashar al-Assad's regime vowed to wreak vengeance on its mostly forsaken inhabitants, who the regime accuses of killing 120 government troops last weekend.
Almost all its residents are now on the move. Two men who spoke with the Guardian in the southern Turkish village of Guvecci on Friday, less than an hour after they had crossed the border, said many hundreds were hiding in the 20 miles of hills and valleys between their home town and safety.
Turkey said it would take in as many refugees as it needed to. The quid pro quo, however, continued to be that none of them were allowed to speak publicly about what they had endured. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has remained a staunch supporter of Assad throughout.
However, Erdogan appeared to change tone on Thursday night, describing the situation in Syria as "appalling" and suggesting that Damascus had not taken seriously his most recent complaints.
Despite mounting condemnation, there appeared to be no respite on Friday in the violence elsewhere in Syria, with human rights groups in Damascus claiming that up to 21 people had been killed at demonstrations across the country.
The largest of them appeared to be in the capital, where activists reported that troops fired teargas and live rounds into numerous suburbs. Large protests were also held in Lattakia, Alleppo and Hama, where more than 60 demonstrators were killed the previous Friday.
Friday, the first day of the weekend in Syria, when worshippers gather in mosques to pray, has been the bloodiest day of each of the past six weeks. Prayers have often spilled over into demonstrations, then marches, which had been outlawed for much of the past four decades as potential threats to the dictatorship.
This Friday was no different, despite clear signs that the embattled regime was refusing to acknowledge international condemnation that this week led to attempts by Britain and France to introduce a resolution criticising Syrian leaders at the UN security council.
Helicopter gunships fired bullets to disperse pro-democracy protests in a northwestern town, according to reports, in the first reported use of air power to quell unrest. The incident occurred after security forces on the ground had killed five protesters, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"At least five helicopters flew over Maarat al-Numan and began firing their machine guns to disperse the tens of thousands who marched in the protest," said a witness, who gave his name as Nawaf, said by telephone. "People hid in fields, under bridges and in their houses, but the firing continued on the mostly empty streets for hours."
Syrian refugees also continued to stream into Lebanon, where there were no restraints on them giving accounts of what had happened during clashes in their towns and villages. None of the residents from Jisr al-Shughour had seemingly tried to reach the Lebanese border, with nearly all having fled north, raising the spectre of a humanitarian crisis between the town and the Turkish border.
"There are people still trying to get to the border who have no food or water," said Hassan, an 18-year-old shopkeeper from Jisr al-Shughour, who claimed to have found a way across the frontier that he uses to resupply family members on the move.
"I have been in this area for five days, coming and going, and there are more people travelling than before."
A clearer picture also began to emerge of the deadly series of battles that took place in Jisr al-Shughour last weekend, leading the government to vow revenge. The Guardian has spoken with six men who all said independently that some men with full beards and in civilian clothes stood alongside Syrian soldiers last Saturday as battles raged in the town.
Their accounts could not be corroborated. But British officials on Friday reiterated a claim that the Syrian government is receiving advice and riot control equipment from Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Westminster said it had seen no evidence of Iran sending troops or paramilitaries to suppress Syrian protests directly.
"That would be something new, that we have not been aware of, but we can't rule it out," one official said.
On Thursday, the UK's chargé d'affaires in Tehran was summoned to the foreign ministry to hear Iranian complaints about the British allegations.
"The UK stands by its statements," the UK Foreign Office said in a statement. "We have seen credible information suggesting Iran is helping Syria with the suppression of protests there, including through the provision of expertise and equipment."