More than 5,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon

Syrian children and women arrive in Dabbabieh in northern Lebanon, near the Lebanese-Syrian border. Carrying mattresses and bags of clothing, Syrians fleeing their homeland described a ‘catastrophic\' scene yesterday in a besieged border town that is largely sealed off as the army tries to crush a two-month uprising.
At least eight people were killed on Sunday in Tall Kalakh — the most recent casualties from a government crackdown that has already killed 850 people nationwide since mid-March, according to the National Organisation for Human Rights (NOHR) in Syria.
A town of about 70,000 residents, Tall Kalakh has been under a military siege since last week.
\"The situation in the city is catastrophic,\" said Ahmad, 55, who crossed the border into Lebanon overnight Monday and asked to be identified only by his first name. \"If you walk in the streets of Tall Kalakh you can smell the dead bodies,\" he said.
Authorities justified the siege by saying the city was full of Islamic extremists who wanted to form an Islamic state, residents told The Associated Press.
\"This is all not true,\" said Ahmad, fearing reprisals if he was further identified.
Another resident, who crossed into Lebanon on Sunday said heavy bombing in the past few days damaged the Omar Bin Al Khattab mosque inside the town.
More than 5,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon in recent weeks as Syrian President Bashar Al Asad\'s security forces try to crush an uprising against his regime with gunfire, sieges and even shelling.
One resident said the conflict in Tall Kalakh has taken on dangerous sectarian tones.

Hamid, 45, who asked to be identified only by his first name, said shadowy, pro-regime gunmen known as \"shabiha\" are targeting Sunnis in the city.
Syria has multiple sectarian divisions, largely kept in check under Al Assad\'s heavy hand and his regime\'s secular ideology. Most significantly, the majority of the population is Sunni Muslim, but Al Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
Tall Kalakh is a Sunni city, surrounded by 12 Alawite villages. \"The city of Tall Kalakh is empty of people. Most of them have fled to Lebanon,\" Hamid said.
At the Wadi Khalid crossing point, Syrians crossed a narrow river separating the countries by hopping along rocks. Bursts of gunfire were heard from the Syrian side as Syrians continued to arrive, some using horses and mules to carry their belongings into Lebanon.
The NOHR in Syria said in a statement yesterday at least 34 people were killed in the past five days in the villages of Inkhil and Jassem near the southern city of Daraa, and five bodies were discovered in Dara\'a yesterday, raising the overall death toll to 850.