The Muslim Bortherhood in Syria has released a statement from London in which it says opposition to the govnerment is peaceful, Al Jazeera reports.
The Brotherhood has long faced oppression in Syria, including a bloody retaliation for an uprising in the 1980s in which thousands of people were killed in Hama.
"We assure international, Arab and national opinion that the Syrian revolution is both peaceful and countrywide," Brotherhood spokesman Zuheir Salem said, according to Al Jazeera.
"Comments by the interior minister about the presence of armed groups terrorising the population of Jisr al-Shughur are a pretext to justify greater repression and murders of innocent citizens."
RUSSIA COULD BLOCK ACTION
But despite mounting violence, moves for international action faced opposition.
Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia opposed the idea of a UN Security Council vote condemning Syria's crackdown on opposition protests.
"The Security Council and the international community have already gotten entangled in the Libyan situation," Lavrov told reporters in Oslo.
"As for examining the Syrian situation at the Security Council, we think the work should have as a goal to solve problems by political means and not to create the conditions for another armed conflict," he said, according to the Itar-Tass news agency.
The minister's comments come as France, Britain and the United States are considering pressing for a vote by the 15-member Security Council on a resolution that could embarrass Russia and China by forcing them into a veto.
The current draft, drawn up by France, Britain, Germany and Portugal, condemns the crackdown by President Bashar al-Assad's regime and warns the violence could constitute crimes against humanity.
Nominally socialist Syria is Russia's closest ally in the Middle East, with a naval base at Tartus in Syria.
FLEEING FEARED CRACKDOWN
Syrian anti-government protests erupted in March and more than 1,100 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in the ensuing security crackdown.
Meanwhile, some 120 Syrian refugees fleeing repression, mostly women and children, have arrived in Turkey where they were looked after by police, an AFP journalist witnessed.
The group of 122 people mostly from the northwest Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughur crossed the border illegally and arrived late Tuesday in the village of Karbeyaz Koyu in Turkey's southern Hatay province, villagers told AFP.
Police set up a security perimeter around the refugees, put up in the village hall, and carried out identification procedures before taking them to a refugee camp set up by the Red Crescent at Yayladag, 45 kilometres (30 miles) to the west.
None of the refugees was injured.
Villagers said a previous group of 45 Syrians had passed through the village on Saturday before reaching Yayladag camp.
Turkey and Syria share an 800-kilometre (500-mile) border.
Syrian dissidents had warned on Tuesday of a harsh backlash as troops headed for Jisr al-Shughur after the authorities said 120 policemen had been massacred there by "armed gangs."
The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook group spurring anti-regime protests, appealed to the army to protect civilians against regime agents.
"Thirteen military vehicles are heading to Jisr al-Shughur," where the alleged massacre took place and which has been the focus of military operations since Saturday, an activist in the town told AFP by telephone.
