BEIRUT/WASHINGTON: The United States and the European Union said Tuesday they plan to implement steps against Syria soon if it does not abandon its brutal crackdown, and diplomats said both would impose sanctions on Syrian officials for rights abuses.
Meanwhile, Syrian protesters called for a one-day nationwide general strike, urging students to skip school and workers to bring commerce to a halt in new strategy of defiance against government crackdowns that appear to be turning more brutal and bloody.

The strike, planned for Wednesday, marks a shift by opposition forces to strike at President Bashar Assad’s regime from new angles: its economic underpinnings and ability to keep the country running during two months of widening battles.

“It will be a day of punishment for the regime from the free revolutionaries … Massive protests, no schools, no universities, no stores or restaurants and even no taxis,” said a statement posted on the main Facebook page of the Syrian Revolution 2011.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton told reporters that the tighter measures could be imposed in the coming days.
“President Assad talks about reform, but his heavy-handed brutal crackdown shows his true intentions,” Clinton said.

“They have embraced the worst tactics of their Iranian ally and they have refused to honor the legitimate aspirations of their own people in Syria,” the secretary of state added.
White House spokesman Jay Carney also warned that the “window is narrowing” for Damascus to avoid further U.S. sanctions, but he declined to provide details or timing for such steps.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday France and Britain were close to getting nine votes for a resolution on Syria at the U.N. Security Council, but Russia and China were threatening to use their veto.
Half of Kuwait’s 50 lawmakers called for cutting ties with Syria and expelling its ambassador over the violent crackdown.

Syria’s army and security forces killed at least 27 civilians in a three-day tank-backed attack on the border town of Talkalakh to subdue protesters, rights lawyer Razan Zaitouna said Tuesday.
“There are 27 confirmed names. An unknown number of bodies were taken to the main hospital in Talkalakh and not handed over to their families,” Zaitouna told Reuters.

Syria’s official news agency said eight soldiers and policemen were killed Tuesday and five others were wounded while pursuing fugitives in Talkalakh and nearby areas. The report said security forces arrested several fugitives and confiscated weapons.
A pro-democracy activist in Homs expressed support for the nationwide strike, calling it “the only way to hurt the regime without putting people’s lives at risk.” But the activist, speaking by phone to AP, doubted the response would be big.

“The majority of businessmen and merchants are either supportive of the regime or fear for the businesses. They have too much to lose,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
The National Organization for Human Rights said in a statement Tuesday that at least 41 people were killed in the past five days in the villages of Inkhil and Jassem near the southern city of Daraa.
International rights watchdog Amnesty International urged Syrian authorities to carry out a prompt, impartial investigation into the reports of mass graves discovered in Daraa Monday. A Syrian Interior Ministry official dismissed the reports as “completely baseless.”