(Reuters) - Army defectors fought government troops Sunday in one of the biggest battles of Syria's nine-month uprising, and a strike shut businesses in a new gesture of civil disobedience, residents and activists said.
In a major international development likely to raise Western pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Paris believed Syria was behind attacks that wounded French peacekeepers in neighboring Lebanon Friday.
In Sunday's fighting, Syrian troops mainly from the 12th Armored Brigade based in Isra, 40-km (25 miles) from the border with Jordan, stormed the nearby town of Busra al-Harir.
A housewife in Busra who did not want to be named told Reuters by telephone that the town was being hit by machinegun fire from tanks. Her children were crying.
The sound of explosions and heavy machineguns was heard there and in Lujah, an area of rocky hills north of the town, where defectors from the army have been hiding and attacking military supply lines, residents and activists said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/11/us-syria-idUSTRE7B90F520111211
