70 killed in Syria crackdown,

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DAMASCUS, Nov 15 (AFP): More than 70 people died in one of the bloodiest days of the eight-month Syrian uprising, activists said Tuesday, as the growing isolation of President Bashar al-Assad's regime drew an increasingly angry reaction from his loyalists. More than 100 of his supporters stormed the Jordanian embassy in Damascus overnight -- the fourth regional mission to be targeted since the Arab League voted Saturday to impose sanctions -- after Jordan's King Abdullah II became the first Arab leader to publicly call for Assad to quit. Buoyed by the fast-growing diplomatic pressure, the Syrian opposition stepped up its contacts with the regime's remaining bulwarks, holding talks in Moscow, which last month joined Beijing in vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that would have threatened "targeted measures." Neighbouring Turkey, a former close Syrian ally that has been one of the most outspoken champions of reform, prepared to hold talks in Morocco with Arab leaders Wednesday that were expected to be dominated by the bloodshed. In a sign of the potential for civil war in one of the Middle East's most pivotal countries, five regular army troops were killed on Tuesday in clashes with mutinous soldiers who refused orders to shoot on civilians, a human rights group said, after 34 were killed the previous day. The fighting erupted in the town of Hara in Daraa province, where the unprecedented protests against Assad's 11-year reign erupted in March, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. In Idlib province in the northwest, close to the Turkish border, "clashes between the regular army and armed men, probably deserters, caused at least 14 casualties -- dead and wounded, the Britain-based watchdog added. Desertions within Assad's security forces -- which have a professional hard core but also much larger conscripted ranks -- triggered much of Monday's death toll of more than 70. A total of 34 soldiers and 12 suspected army deserters were killed in clashes, as well as 27 civilians shot dead by security forces in the regime's intensifying crackdown, the Observatory said. Most of the victims were killed in Daraa province, the uprising's birthplace close to the border with Jordan, which has become increasingly outspoken about the bloodshed in its northern neighbour. King Abdullah II Monday became the first Arab leader to openly call for Assad to step down, two days after the Arab League took the rare move of suspending Syrian membership of the 22-nation bloc and imposing sanctions.