ZABADANI, Syria, July 17 (UPI) -- Tanks and troops moved into the Syrian town of Zabadani, near the Lebanese border, and soldiers detained dozens of people, a witness said.
It is the latest incident in a weekend of bloody clashes between protesters calling for the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad and government troops, CNN reported Sunday.
Some two dozen protesters calling for Assad's ouster have been killed by government troops within the past week.
A resident who didn't want his name used for fear of reprisal said troops rounded up people indiscriminately Sunday. He said some of those detained were simply standing by the roadside, waiting to go to work.
Troops set up checkpoints around the city and residents were said to be afraid to go outside. One resident said telephone services and electricity to the city were shut off.
"Bashar al-Assad is finished," said Haitham al-Maleh, a political prisoner released from jail in March. "He must leave the country, leave the power. We want to build our government, our regime, without them.
"We will move together to be one opposition … because you know we spent 50 years under a dictatorship," Maleh said.
Saturday Syrian activists met in Istanbul and elected a 25-member group called The National Salvation Council to focus efforts in getting Assad to leave.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in Istanbul for meetings with Turkish officials, said Assad should step down.
"What's happening in Syria is very uncertain and troubling, because many of us had hoped that President Assad would make the reforms that were necessary without seeing what we're now seeing in the streets of Syria, which are government tanks and soldiers shooting peaceful demonstrators," Clinton said.
"There must be a legitimate, sincere effort with the opposition to try to make changes," Clinton said. "I don't know whether that will happen or not."
