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Troops backed by 97 tanks and personnel carriers advanced late Saturday on Kfar Rumma village and made arrests in the district of Jabal al-Zawiyah, said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He told AFP in Nicosia that the troops moved to the outskirts of Kfar Rumma but did not enter it as residents tried to block them.
"Ninety-seven military vehicles, including tanks and personnel carriers, carrying thousands of soldiers moved Saturday night towards Kfar Rumma," he said.
"Hundreds of residents emerged from their homes to confront them and prevent them from advancing, but the troops pursued their deployment to carry out their military operations."
Abdel Rahman said security forces raided several villages in the Jabal al-Zawiyah district, where the latest military campaign was launched last week.
"Security forces raided several villages in Jabal al-Zawiyah, destroying the homes of activists in Al-Bara village and arresting their relatives to pressure the activists to turn themselves in," he said.
Further south, troops deployed on Saturday at key junctions leading to Hama and "heavy gunfire" was heard in the city during the night, he added.
Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad sacked the governor of Hama on Saturday, a day after hundreds of thousands rallied against the regime in the city.
Anti-government protests mushroomed on Friday in response to a call by a Facebook group.
In Hama alone, 500,000 people took to the streets, without security forces intervening, activists said, calling it the single largest demonstration of its kind since the pro-democracy movement erupted on March 15.
Assad reacted by sacking the governor of Hama, where an estimated 20,000 people were killed in 1982 when the army put down an Islamist revolt against the rule of his late father, Hafez al-Assad.
The gathering in Damascus on Sunday of independents was the second such meeting of its kind in a week, after critics of Assad vowed at an unprecedented gathering in the capital last Monday to press ahead with a peaceful uprising.
Sunday's meeting included former and current members of parliament, including independent MP Mohammed Habash and Hussein Ammash, formerly an official tasked to combat unemployment.
Those present wanted to find "a third way between the opposition and the authorities," an organiser of the meeting told AFP.
Last Thursday, the opposition turned up the heat on Assad, announcing the creation of a "national coordination committee" of exiled dissidents and opponents at home to push for democratic reforms.
Rights groups say that more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people arrested by security forces since the revolt began on March 15.
Turkey said on Sunday that some Syrian refugees who had streamed across the border fleeing the military crackdown in the north are now choosing to return home.
The disaster and emergency management agency said on its website that 343 people went back to Syria on Saturday, taking the total number of returnees to 5,001.
Turkey welcomed 20 new refugees on the same day, meaning 10,227 citizens are now being provided with shelter and food, with 60 receiving hospital care, it said.
The number of refugees fleeing the Syrian government's bloody crackdown and entering Turkey peaked at 11,739 at the end of June, when Syrian troops stormed border villages where many displaced people had massed.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has blocked 27 million francs (31.8 million dollars, 21.9 million euros) worth of assets linked to Assad's regime, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said on Sunday.
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He told AFP in Nicosia that the troops moved to the outskirts of Kfar Rumma but did not enter it as residents tried to block them.
"Ninety-seven military vehicles, including tanks and personnel carriers, carrying thousands of soldiers moved Saturday night towards Kfar Rumma," he said.
"Hundreds of residents emerged from their homes to confront them and prevent them from advancing, but the troops pursued their deployment to carry out their military operations."
Abdel Rahman said security forces raided several villages in the Jabal al-Zawiyah district, where the latest military campaign was launched last week.
"Security forces raided several villages in Jabal al-Zawiyah, destroying the homes of activists in Al-Bara village and arresting their relatives to pressure the activists to turn themselves in," he said.
Further south, troops deployed on Saturday at key junctions leading to Hama and "heavy gunfire" was heard in the city during the night, he added.
Syria's embattled President Bashar al-Assad sacked the governor of Hama on Saturday, a day after hundreds of thousands rallied against the regime in the city.
Anti-government protests mushroomed on Friday in response to a call by a Facebook group.
In Hama alone, 500,000 people took to the streets, without security forces intervening, activists said, calling it the single largest demonstration of its kind since the pro-democracy movement erupted on March 15.
Assad reacted by sacking the governor of Hama, where an estimated 20,000 people were killed in 1982 when the army put down an Islamist revolt against the rule of his late father, Hafez al-Assad.
The gathering in Damascus on Sunday of independents was the second such meeting of its kind in a week, after critics of Assad vowed at an unprecedented gathering in the capital last Monday to press ahead with a peaceful uprising.
Sunday's meeting included former and current members of parliament, including independent MP Mohammed Habash and Hussein Ammash, formerly an official tasked to combat unemployment.
Those present wanted to find "a third way between the opposition and the authorities," an organiser of the meeting told AFP.
Last Thursday, the opposition turned up the heat on Assad, announcing the creation of a "national coordination committee" of exiled dissidents and opponents at home to push for democratic reforms.
Rights groups say that more than 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people arrested by security forces since the revolt began on March 15.
Turkey said on Sunday that some Syrian refugees who had streamed across the border fleeing the military crackdown in the north are now choosing to return home.
The disaster and emergency management agency said on its website that 343 people went back to Syria on Saturday, taking the total number of returnees to 5,001.
Turkey welcomed 20 new refugees on the same day, meaning 10,227 citizens are now being provided with shelter and food, with 60 receiving hospital care, it said.
The number of refugees fleeing the Syrian government's bloody crackdown and entering Turkey peaked at 11,739 at the end of June, when Syrian troops stormed border villages where many displaced people had massed.
Meanwhile, Switzerland has blocked 27 million francs (31.8 million dollars, 21.9 million euros) worth of assets linked to Assad's regime, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said on Sunday.
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