Syria's armed forces said they were ready to repulse any foreign aggression 2112113.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 01:45 PM

Syrian troops assaulting a northwest town with machine gun fire and shelling have killed at least 100 people in one of the deadliest episodes of the 9-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime, activists said Wednesday, December 21, 2011.

It was an organized massacre. The troops surrounded people then killed them," said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said troops on the outskirts of the town surrounded and fired on crowds of civilians and activists trying to flee out of fear they would be detained. The group, which uses a network of local activists to collect information on the crackdown, said 111 were killed in Kfar Owaid Tuesday.

The Syrian conflict, which began with peaceful protests in March, has become increasingly militarized in recent weeks, with clashes nearly every day between troops and army defectors who have joined the movement against Assad. Idlib province has witnessed some of the most intense clashes.

On Monday, security forces killed up to 70 army defectors as they were deserting their military posts in Idlib near the Turkish border, activists said.

Meanwhile, the Syrian military was displaying its might with a second round of maneuvers Tuesday involving warplanes, helicopters and surface-to-air missiles, state TV reported, without identifying the location.

Syria's air and naval forces conducted live-fire manoeuvres aimed testing their readiness to repulse "any aggression against the homeland," the official Sana news agency reported, with state TV pictures reportedly showing warplanes and helicopters firing missiles at targets in a desert area, as well as surface-to-air missiles hitting targets in the air.

Syria's armed forces said they were ready to repulse any foreign aggression.