DAMASCUS/WASHINGTON: The United States told Syria’s President Bashar Assad Wednesday to lead a transition or step down and slapped him with sanctions in its latest effort to press him to end deadly violence against his people.
The news came as Syrian forces were accused of killing at least eight people in a besieged border town and as Assad said the two-month-old revolt had been mishandled by the authorities but was now drawing to a close.

U.S. President Barack Obama hit Assad and six top aides with sanctions to “increase pressure on the government of Syria to end its use of violence and begin transitioning to a democratic system that ensures the universal rights of the Syrian people,” said an executive order.

The sanctions block any property the seven have in the United States or any “in the possession or control of U.S. persons in which the designated individuals have an interest,” said the document distributed by the State Department.
In imposing the sanctions, the Obama administration stopped short of saying Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule, a formula Washington has applied to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

“We are saying that we oppose his behavior and that he needs to stop his policies of repression and mass arrests and begin a political transition that ensures fair representation and democratic rights for Syrians.”
“We are also saying that Assad is isolating himself from the international community due to his egregious actions,” the document said, adding: “It is up to Assad to lead a political transition or to leave.”
The U.S. sanctions announced Wednesday target Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, Prime Minister Adel Safar, Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, Defense Minister Ali Habib Mahmoud, military intelligence chief Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, and Mohammad Dib Zaitoun, director of Political Security Directorate.

On April 30, Obama imposed asset freezes and restrictions on financial transactions, notably against Maher Assad, the powerful brother of the president, who commands Syria’s feared Fourth Armored Division.
U.S. officials were unable to estimate the value of the assets involved, but leading Syrian opposition figure Haitham al-Maleh said the move meant “members of the regime are now under siege.”
“Any move by the international community may help the Syrian people in continuing their uprising,” he said from Damascus.

Switzerland said Wednesday it would impose travel bans on 13 top Syrian officials – but not Assad himself – and freeze any of their assets held in Swiss banks, matching a decision by the European Union last week.
Syrian forces were accused of killing at least eight more people Wednesday in the besieged border town of Talkalakh, according to human rights activists.

Troops went into Talkalakh Saturday, a day after a demonstration there demanded “the overthrow of the regime.” “We’re still without water, electricity or communications,” a resident said by satellite phone.
More than 850 people are believed to have been killed and another 8,000 arrested since anti-regime protests erupted two months ago, according to rights watchdogs.

Assad said the unrest was coming to an end and acknowledged wrongdoing on the part of security services at a meeting in Damascus, according to Al-Watan, a newspaper close to his government.
“President Assad gave assurances that Syria had overcome the crisis it went through and that events were coming to an end,” the private daily quoted him as saying, without giving a date for the meeting.Despite the brutal crackdown, Syria’s opposition has pushed on with pro-democracy protests and defiantly called for a general strike across Syria Wednesday.
Schools, shops and public transport operated normally in Damascus and other cities, but an activist said that a normally busy district of Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, was affected, as was the university campus.

In the northern city of Homs, protesters marched before security forces pressed shops to reopen using loudhailers, activists said, while in the southern protest hub of Daraa the strike was widely observed and all stores were shut.
Meanwhile, an Al-Jazeera journalist who was detained in Syria three weeks ago and sent to Iran, said after being released and flown to Qatar Wednesday that she could hear beatings “almost around the clock” in her Syrian jail.
“The beatings I heard almost around the clock were savage … I heard two separate interrogations and beatings … young men … being beaten so harshly,” Parvaz told Al-Jazeera of her time in detention in Syria.
“I don’t know what kind of answers they were expecting from these young men but all they got was ‘wallahi’ [swear to God] ‘wallahi’ or just … ‘no, no’ or ‘please stop’ in Arabic.”
“I saw a man shackled to a radiator being forced, it seemed, to write a confession, but he was quivering so hard he couldn’t even write,” Parvaz said.

Al-Jazeera said earlier that Parvaz, who has U.S., Canadian and Iranian citizenship, was in good health and had arrived in the Qatari capital Doha.
“She landed in Doha, Qatar on May 18 on a flight from Iran,” Al-Jazeera said, adding that Parvaz had not been allowed any contact with the outside world since the channel lost touch with her after her arrival at Damascus Airport April 29.
Al-Jazeera said that Parvaz’s fiance, Todd Barker, posted on Facebook: “She is safe in Doha and will be coming to Vancouver, B.C. soon. We can’t wait to see her.”