Report: Syria seals off Iraqi border after Kurds threaten violence
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent

Syria on Monday sealed of its borders with Iraq after Iraqi Kurd fighters threatened to enter the country if violent clashes between security forces and their Syrian brethren were not brought to an end.

…Kurdish leaders in Syria on Saturday called on Masoud Barazani, one of the Kurdish leaders in Iraq, to help them in what they called "a massacre."

According to Kurdish sources, isolated exchanges of gunfire continued overnight Sunday in several towns, but in general, the violence was diminishing. The sources claim that demonstrations continued in the city of Haleb and that two Kurds were killed during the exchanges of fire in the northern town of Hassake.

The legal advisor of the Paris-based National Council for Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Syria, George Sara, said that Syrian security services were conducting mass arrests, claiming that 100 people have been detained in Damascus.

Sara claimed he could not determine the exact number of people killed during the riots, but that his organization estimated the number to be between 60 and 100. He expressed disappointment with the lack of coverage of the riots in the western media, but asserted that Kurdish media in Turkey began showing interest on Sunday.