AMMAN/UNITED NATIONS: Syrian protesters chanted “Bye, bye Gadhafi, Bashar your turn is coming” overnight, but President Bashar Assad showed few signs of cracking after months of demonstrations and his forces raided an eastern tribal region again Thursday.

The new chant, inspired by the apparent collapse of Moammar Gadhafi’s rule in Libya, was filmed by residents in the Damascus suburb of Duma after prayers Wednesday.
But in eastern Syria, tanks and armored vehicles entered Shuhail, a town southeast of the provincial capital of Deir al-Zour, where daily protests have taken place against Assad’s rule since the start of the fasting month of Ramadan, they said.

Since Ramadan began on Aug. 1, tanks have entered the cities of Hama, scene of a 1982 massacre by the military, Deir al-Zour and Latakia on the Mediterranean coast, trying to crush dissent after months of protests.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group based in Britain, said 11 civilians had been killed across Syria Wednesday, including seven in the province of Homs.

State news agency SANA said “armed terrorist groups” killed eight soldiers when they ambushed 2 military vehicles near the towns of Rastan and Telbiseh.
Syria has expelled most independent journalists, making it difficult to verify accounts on the ground from authorities and activists.

The defeat of Gadhafi may encourage Western nations to step up moves against Assad. He has pursued parallel policies of strengthening ties with Iran and Shiite Lebanese group Hezbollah while seeking peace talks with Israel and accepting European and U.S. overtures that were key in rehabilitating him on the international stage.

European Union diplomats said Wednesday the bloc’s governments were likely to impose an embargo on Syrian oil by the end of next week.
Syria exports over a third of its 385,000 barrels of daily crude oil output to Europe, mainly the Netherlands, Italy, France and Spain.

A disruption would cut off a major source of foreign currency that helps to finance the security apparatus, and restrict funds at Assad’s disposal to reward loyalists and continue a crackdown in which the United Nations says 2,200 people have been killed.
In a sign the prospect of sanctions was already having an effect, traders said French oil major Total had not lifted a cargo of naphtha from Syria’s Banias refinery which it had bought in a tender.

In an interview with state television this week, Assad said the unrest “has shifted toward armed acts.” Authorities blame the violence on “armed terrorist groups” who they say have killed an unspecified number of civilians and 500 soldiers and police.
A U.N. humanitarian team ended an inspection mission to Syria Thursday even though security forces are still using “excessive and lethal force” against demonstrators, officials said.

The team, which Assad let into Syria last weekend after months of United Nations pressure, went to Damascus, Homs, Banias, Latakia, Hama, Aleppo and Idlib, said U.N. Undersecretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe.“It has just completed its visit today and [the] Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will provide a briefing in the next few days,” Pascoe told a U.N. Security Council meeting.

The team, which was assessing Syria’s need for medicines, food and other essential supplies, was ordered to withdraw from Homs this week. Activists said security forces opened fire on protesters in the town after the U.N. team arrived.

“Syrian security forces have continued to use excessive and lethal force against the popular protests,” Pascoe told the council.
He added that Assad’s “failure to rein in security forces undermined the credibility” of his announcement of reforms and promise of elections.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said it was up to the Syrian authorities and people to find a way out of the unrest.

“The hope of the West is to attack Syria the way they intervened in Libya but the people and the government in Syria should sit down together and reach an understanding on reforms,” he told Al-Manar television channel.
“The people should have the right to elections, freedom and justice [so] they should set the timeline about it [together].”

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition figures who met in Istanbul to form a broad-based council to represent the uprising against Assad said Thursday they needed more time to consult with activists inside Syria on its composition.
The delay indicates the difficulty in uniting an opposition decimated by decades of Assad family repression.

Encouraged by international support for their cause, leading opposition figures held lengthy discussions in Istanbul this week to nominate a council that could help with a transition of power if Assad were to be toppled.
Western governments, which have stepped up sanctions on Assad in reaction to his crackdown on protesters, have privately expressed frustration with opposition’s lack of unity, diplomats say.