Al-Rameh, Wadi Khaled, Lebanon, May 18 - Ten women from the Syrian towns of Tal Kalakh and Aridah sat on the porch of a small house of a Lebanese family hosting them in the border village of al-Rameh describing the violence and fear they said had led to the displacement of thousands from their homes.
A child screamed and ran to her mother's lap at the sound of bullets in the background.
They said they fled on Saturday, leaving their money and belongings behind, as well as some male family members who they said could be either arrested or killed.
"I saw three bodies of men in pools of blood outside our home on Saturday in Tal Kalakh. Nobody dared to drag them out of the streets. Our houses were fired at by tank shells and bullets, we were terrified," a 17-year-old girl told me.
"We heard of many more killed. There were snipers everywhere. The armed Shabeeha (thugs), and armed Alawite civilians as well as the army were burning and destroying homes. Tanks were surrounding the town," her mother added.
Another woman from al-Aridah town on the border with Lebanon, said she was making breakfast for her family when she heard shots outside her home. She looked out her window and saw tanks coming down the hill.
"Our neighbours the Alawites turned into armed gangs against us the Sunnis. We were surprised because we never thought they held so much hatred for us. They burned, destroyed and shot," another woman said.
"Two bullets from snipers outside our home flew near my face while I was in my room," one said.
An older refugee woman from Aridah said her aunt was shot in the head and killed while fleeing on the bridge that separated her Syrian town from the Lebanese al-Rameh village. Another relative fleeing with her was shot and wounded in the leg.
"We didn't dare go near them to rescue them, the shooting was heavy. A Lebanese soldier braved the bullets and went to drag her inside Lebanon, he too was shot and wounded in the leg," she said, with tears welling up in her eyes.
Another woman said the fleeing woman and their children had to crawl across the bridge because "bullets were falling above our heads like rain."
According to the refugee families, some 5,000 people had fled the town of al-Aridah of 33,000.
Women said few men had succeeded to cross into Lebanon. Many of those who did, were either elderly men or crossed illegally at night.
The international media was not allowed to cover the protests inside Syria and stories by refugees could not be independently verified.
Men, who had managed to flee, gathered near the river bank that overlooked Aridah town. A few men they said were armed thugs, were seen riding motorcycles in the empty town across the river. There was no other sign of life there.
They too had stories to tell about the brutality they saw.
One young man said he had to crawl for hours out of Tal Kalakh Saturday night.
"As I was crawling, I felt dead bodies beneath me," he said.
He said the tanks and troops stormed into Tal Kalakh on Saturday a day after a demonstration called for the downfall of the regime. The men said they called for the toppling of the regime when they felt their demands for the release of prisoners went unheeded.
Asked how long their displacement would take, one man said: "I will not return. If I go back, I will either get killed or arrested."
WHAT IS OBAMA WAITING FOR?
Several Turkmen from Zara town said the too had fled on Sunday. They believed they were targetted in retaliation for Turkish Prime Minister Rajab Tayeb Ordogan's position on events in Syria.
"Ask (U.S. President Barack) Obama what is he waiting for? Why is he not calling on Bashar Assad to step down? It didn't take him that long to call for the removal of Hosni Mubarak and Zein Bin Ali of Tunis?", one of the Turkmen said. "We're without food, communications, and electricity. Hasn't he heard of the mass grave in Dar'aa?"
Human rights lawyer Razan Zaitouna said the army and security forces have killed at least 27 civilians since the army moved into Tal Kalakh.
On Wednesday, Obama imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad and six other senior Syrian officials. The move reflected Washington's frustration with Syria's lack of response to international condemnation of its crackdown on political protests in the country.
Human rights groups say at least 700 civilians have been killed in two months of clashes between Syrian forces and protesters seeking an end to Bashar Assad's 11-year rule.
In an interview published in the al-Watan local paper on Wednesday, Bashar Assad acknowledged for the first time that the security forces had made a mistake handling the protests.
The protests are the most serious challenge to Assad's rule.
"We have no confidence in him, we appeal to the world to help us," one young man said.
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