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Summary Security forces killed two people during a search operation in a village in northern Syria.
Syrian security forces searching for an alleged high-profile defector from President Bashar Assads regime killed two people after storming a northern village Saturday, raising the death toll from the past two days to at least 19, activists said.A day earlier, security forces trying to crush almost six months of demonstrations against the authoritarian leadership fired on thousands of marchers, killing 17 people, most of them in suburbs of the capital Damascus.The crackdown has drawn international criticism and sanctions. The European Union announced Friday it was banning oil imports from Syria, which will cost the embattled regime millions of dollars each day.While Assad brushed off earlier condemnation as foreign meddling, the oil embargo is significant because Damascus gets about 28 percent of its revenue from the oil trade and sells fuel to France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Some analysts believe Syria is getting financial assistance from Iran, which would cushion the EU blow.The United States has hit more than 30 Syrian officials, including Assad himself, with economic sanctions, banned any US import of Syrian oil or petroleum products, and frozen all Syrian government assets subject to American jurisdiction. But the US has isolated Syria for decades and has little leverage with the regime.Saturday, US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland welcome the EU oil import band.The United States and our international partners will continue to add political and economic pressure in an effort to force President Asad to step aside and allow the Syrian people to effect a peaceful transition that is democratic and inclusive for all Syrians, Nuland said.The U.N. estimates some 2,200 people have been killed since March as protesters take to the streets every week, despite the near-certainty that they will face a barrage of bullets and sniper fire. The regime is in no imminent danger of collapse, leading to concerns violence will escalate.
