WarSclerotic

“We certainly have nothing resembling the kind of strong action the Arab League took with respect to Libya,” Mrs. Clinton said.

In March, the Arab League gave its support for a no-fly zone imposed by Western forces to protect Libyan civilians against Muammar Qaddafi’s forces while declaring that the colonel’s regime had lost its legitimacy.

Mrs. Clinton again recalled that President Barack Obama last month had given Mr. Assad the choice to lead a transition or “get out of the way.”

“Every day that he stays in office and the violence continues he’s basically making that choice by default,” Secretary Clinton said, according to AFP.

“I think the legitimacy that is necessary for anyone to expect change to occur under this current government is, if not gone, nearly run out,” she said.

“The international community has to continue to make its strongest possible case,” Mrs. Clinton said.

Syria’s exiled opposition, meeting in Turkey, meanwhile, urged President Assad to resign immediately and hand power to the vice president until a council is formed to oversee a transition to democracy.

“The delegates have committed to the demands of the Syrian people to bring down the regime and support the people’s revolution for freedom and dignity,” said a communiqué issued by 300 opposition figures after two days of talks in Antalya.

The communiqué said the opposition refuses any foreign intervention to topple Mr. Assad and that the revolt in Syria is a national movement “that does not aim to undermine any sect,” in reference to Syria’s Alawite minority, from which the ruling hierarchy and most of the security apparatus are drawn.

The conference, the first by activists since the uprising against President Assad erupted 11 weeks ago, elected a 31 member consultative council to support the demonstrations and help raise international pressure against Mr. Assad.

Syria’s state-run Tishrin daily criticized the meeting in Turkey saying those who are participating in the conference only have one thing in common which is “dependence on foreign countries to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs, destabilize it and undermine its security,” The Associated Press reported.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia also issued a warning to the protesters, saying that attempts to change the Assad regime by the use of force should be curbed because it will have “catastrophic consequences.”

“We insist the reforms begun by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be carried out as soon as possible,” Mr. Lavrov said, according to Russia’s Itar Tass news agency.

The United States and France said the amnesty would not be enough.

Security forces backed by tanks have laid siege to Rastan, a town of 60,000, since Sunday in an effort to crush protests.

The 13 victims were shot by snipers and security forces that imposed a curfew, Ammar Qurabi, head of the Syrian Organization for Human Rights, and lawyer Razan Zaitouna told Reuters.

On Tuesday, shelling killed 41, including a four-year-old girl, Ms. Zaitouna said. At least 200 people have been arrested.

Syria, a country of 23 million people, has barred most international media, making it difficult to verify accounts of the violence.

Mr. Qurabi said some residents had occasionally used guns to protect themselves against the regime’s relentless assaults.

“There have been rare instances of people who have seen their parents, wives or children being killed, (people) taking their personal weapons and trying to resist. But they were smothered by the overwhelming and unjustifiable force being used by the authorities,” he told Reuters at the meeting in Turkey.

He said his organization had the names of 1,113 civilians killed since anti-Assad protests began on March 18.

Syria blames the unrest on armed groups backed by Islamists and foreign powers. Mr. Assad, 46, has sent security forces and tanks to several protest flashpoints, including Deraa, Banias and Tal Kelakh, a border town near Lebanon, and now Rastan.

Four soldiers shot by “armed terrorist groups” in Rastan on Wednesday were buried on Thursday, the state news agency said.

While the crackdown on Rastan intensified, authorities began freeing hundreds of political prisoners after Assad issued a general amnesty, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Foreign Minister Alain Juppe of France said the amnesty had come too late and that Syrian authorities had to have a “much clearer and more ambitious” change of direction.

A blend of force and reformist gestures has failed to quell a growing movement against President Assad’s rule. Instead it has provoked international condemnation and sanctions as the civilian death toll, which rights groups say tops 1,000, keeps rising.

Rami Abdelrahman, the Observatory’s director, said most of those released under the amnesty were protesters from the suburbs of Damascus, the cities of Banias, Homs and Latakia, as well as Deraa in the south and the eastern Hasaka region.

Rights groups estimate that more than 10,000 people have been rounded up since protests erupted in mid-March.

Along with the amnesty, President Assad has launched preparations for a national dialogue, but opposition figures, activists and protesters say this means little while repression continues.

Human Rights Watch said that witness testimony showed security forces were guilty of “systematic killings and torture” in Deraa. The New York-based group said the actions strongly suggested they qualified as crimes against humanity.

At first wary of more instability in the region, Western powers have stepped up measures against Mr. Assad, imposing sanctions against him and senior figures in his government.

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia said he had expanded a list of members of Mr. Assad’s circle subject to sanctions and urged the UN Security Council to consider referring the Syrian leader to the International Criminal Court.

“When you see such large-scale, directed action by a head of government against his own civilian population, including the murder of a 13-year-old boy and his torture, then the deepest questions arise in the minds of the people of the world as to whether any claims of legitimacy remains,” Mr. Rudd said.

The death of Hamza al-Khatib, aged 13, who rights groups says was tortured and killed in custody, has drawn outrage around the world and spurred more protests in Syria.

Syrian authorities deny he was tortured, saying he was killed at a demonstration in which armed gangs shot at guards.

(Abeer Tayel, an editor at Al Arabiya English, can be reached at: abeer.tayel@mbc.net)