(Image source: BBC)

BY JIM FLINK

ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA

Syrian opposition leaders are calling for United Nations and Arab League direct intervention -- after claiming a massacre took place in the northern part of the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights posted the following on its Facebook page Tuesday.

“At least 100 defected soldiers were besieged this morning in Zawyia Mountain in Idlib .... The number of the dead defected soldiers is still to be confirmed.”

Multiple news outlets are reporting, at least 200 people have died in the latest crackdown by Syrian government forces.  This comes after the government issued a decree calling all government opponents ‘terrorists’.  CNN explains the term’s dangerous lack of definition.

“It’s really quite a fluid phrase, and the penalty for anyone who’s caught is execution.”

Al Jazeera reports, Syrian government death squads are rounding up protesters, and hustling them away.

“These are the shabbi hab.  Militiamen loyal to the Syrian government.  Activists say they have been responsible for deaths over many months.  Opponents of the government filmed them in the Damascus suberb of Mayden, allegedly arresting protesters and using live ammunition.”

One activist puts the death toll at 269--and that’s for Tuesday alone. But, as BBC notes -- the numbers still can’t be confirmed. 

“Events in Syria are hard to verify because the authorities have banned most independent reporting, but [the activist] said his information came from a variety of trusted sources, including defectors, civilians in the area and medics at the National Hospital ... who had counted the soldiers’ bodies.” 

This so-called massacre comes at the eve of the planned arrival of some 500 foreign observers in Syria -- a part of the Arab League accord the country signed earlier this week. BusinessWeek reports, some are accusing Syria’s signing of the deal as simply buying time.  

“‘The Syrian government may have calculated that it can ‘manage’ the monitoring mission as part of its wider strategy to delay or divert international pressure,’ [a Middle East analyst with IHS Global Insight, said].”

More than 5,000 Syrians have been killed in the unrest which began as an offshoot of the Arab Spring.