Syria came under mounting pressure from Turkey and Arab Gulf states on Tuesday to ease its violent repression of protests a day before a historic move to suspend its Arab League membership.
Human rights groups and monitors reported that up to 70 people were killed in clashes on Monday, with a total of 140 dead since the Arab League voted on Saturday to suspend Syria's membership.
As the death toll continued to rise, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, urged Syria's government to "turn back from the edge of the cliff". He threatened to cut electricity supplies to its southern neighbour if its president, Bashar al-Assad – "feeding on blood" – did not change course.
Turkey's president, Abdullah Gul, added: "Unfortunately, Syria today has entered a dead end." Turkey also announced the suspension of joint oil exploration with Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 19 unidentified corpses were delivered to a hospital in the central city of Homs. It said the bodies could be people kidnapped by loyalist militiamen.
Meanwhile, the Syrian Revolution General Commission, an activist group, reported seven named individuals killed. Video clips posted online showed mutilated corpses and people being beaten.
Citizens of Homs described "vicious and unbelievable fighting" in bitterly contested parts of the city. Two residents told the Guardian that defections of members of the security forces had risen sharply since the league vote's. That decision appears to have encouraged demonstrators in Homs and Deraa, where 34 government troops are thought to have been ambushed on Monday night.
"Especially in the past two days there have been many defections," said one resident. "We are especially seeing young ones and we are starting to see officers. There have been 50-60 in our area alone."
Syrian officials are forcing government workers to join mass rallies across the country on Wednesday in support of the regime.
Assad's growing isolation was underlined again when the six members of the Saudi-led Gulf Co-operation Council rebuffed his call for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the crisis.
Russia, however, refused to back demands by Assad's opponents to support them against the regime.
The suspension, called "shameful and malicious" by Damascus, is due to take effect on Wednesday as foreign ministers meet in Morocco. League rules require 15 of the 22 members to back an emergency summit.
On Monday King Abdullah of Jordan became the first Arab leader to call publicly for Assad to step down.
The meeting in Rabat, the Moroccan capital, is likely to discuss fresh economic and further political sanctions on Syria. But new divisions are likely to emerge and constrain further collective action.
Sudan, one of the 18 Arab countries which backed Syria's suspension, indicated it wanted to mend fences. Egypt and several other member states have ignored a league call to withdraw ambassadors from Damascus.
Russia, meanwhile, urged the Syrian National Council (SNC), the largest anti-Assad opposition group, to talk to the regime. Burhan Ghalioun, the Paris-based SNC leader, said the opposition would only talk to those whose hands were not stained with blood.
Russia has said the Arab League was wrong to suspend Syria and opposed any move by the UN security council to condemn the Assad regime.
Ghalioun said: "We were unable to change the position of the Russian government, and they also could not change our position."
In Kuwait 33 MPs called on the government to recognise the SNC – in a move which would parallel recognition of the Benghazi-based Libyan rebels of the National Transitional Council while Muammar Gaddafi was in power.
Syrian officials claimed to have freed 1,100 political prisoners ahead of Wednesday's league meeting. The release of all prisoners seized since the uprising began on 15 March was a key condition of a deal struck two weeks ago, which Syria has not honoured.
An end to the crackdown had also been a key demand. But November is on track to be the bloodiest month of the uprising.
The global rights group, Avaaz, said it has compiled figures showing that 4,203 people have been killed since March – 700 more than UN figures say. Avaaz says its researchers used testimony from three people, including a relative of each victim, to collate its figures.
Ricken Patel, executive director of Avaaz, said: "After an 8 month horror show that has left thousands dead and tortured, the Arab League and China are, at last, taking action on Syria. Russia is now the lone remaining power shilling for Assad, and will face intense public and diplomatic pressure to stop blocking effective UN measures."
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