Prosecutor and judge murdered

BEIRUT (AP):

Gunmen in Syria staged a guerrilla-style ambush that killed a senior state prosecutor and a judge yesterday in an attack that suggested armed factions are growing bolder and more coordinated in their uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime.

The roadway slayings - reported in an opposition-dominated northern region by the Syrian state news agency - came a day after a deadly hit-and-run attack on a political figure in the heart of the pro-Assad city of Aleppo.

The targeted killings have not reached Assad's inner circle, but they indicate a growing shift toward violent tactics by the opposition as it brings aboard more military defectors and seeks to tighten control over the small pieces of territory in its hands.

The fears of a looming civil war have neighbouring Jordan racing to finish a refugee camp near the Syrian border to handle a possible exodus of people fleeing for safety.

Latest Arab snub

Meanwhile, Egypt became the latest Arab nation to publicly snub Assad by ordering the withdrawal of its ambassador in Damascus.

The Syrian government has offered some concessions, including proposing a referendum next week that could allow more political voices to challenge Assad's Baath Party.

But the opposition demands nothing short of Assad's resignation. And the regime has not eased off its attacks on the opposition forces, which it describes as "terrorists" carrying out a foreign conspiracy to destabilise the country.