Syrian forces kill 12 on eve of peace deadline

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DAMASCUS, Nov 19 (AFP): Syrian security forces killed at least 12 civilians Friday including two children, on the eve of an Arab League deadline for Damascus to stop its lethal crackdown on protesters. The latest bloodletting came as Turkey and the United States raised the risk of civil war and as thousands of protesters took to the streets to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors, in defiance of massive security force deployments. A British Foreign Office spokeswoman told the news agency that Foreign Secretary William Hague was to hold talks with Syrian rebel leaders in London Monday, while a government source said the opposition figures would also meet senior officials from Prime Minister David Cameron's office. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for restraint over the Syrian crisis after talks with his French counterpart Francois Fillon, who accused President Bashar al-Assad of being deaf to pressure. "We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position," Putin told a Moscow news conference, the day after his foreign minister had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war. Russia has been deeply opposed to Western efforts to internationalise the crisis, fearing it might clear the way for a Libya-style Western military intervention under a UN mandate. In October, Russia and China vetoed a Western-drafted UN Security Council resolution that would have threatened Assad's regime with "targeted measures" over its crackdown. Turkey said the risk of civil war was real -- a warning echoed by analysts monitoring developments in Syria amid growing losses among regular army troops at the hands of mutinous soldiers. The Arab League said it was examining a Syrian request to make changes to a proposal to send 500 observers to Damascus to help implement a peace deal agreed earlier this month. Facing growing isolation, Syria has been told by its Arab peers to stop the lethal repression against protesters by 2200 GMT Saturday or risk sanctions, and the Arab League has suspended it from the 22-member bloc.