Syrian troops take town on refugee flight route

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Newly arrived Syrian refugee families receive food from the Jordanian military Associated Press/Photo by Mohammad Hannon

Syrian troops take town on refugee flight route

BEIRUT (AP) - After hours of heavy shelling, Syrian troops recaptured a border town Thursday in what activists said was a government attempt to stem the flood of people fleeing their country's civil war.

Syrian rebels had been in control of Tel Chehab, along the Jordanian border, for months despite repeated assaults by pro-government troops, local activist Mohammed Abu Houran said.

In the latest clashes, hundreds of Syrian soldiers backed by 20 tanks assaulted Tel Chehab, according to Abu Houran and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rebels fought back but were pushed out, activists said.

A Jordanian army officer living just across the border said by telephone that he had heard heavy shelling starting early in the morning, but that it had subsided by midday.

"It sounded like the shelling came from tanks and armored vehicles," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because army regulations forbid him from being identified in press accounts.

The activists did not have casualty figures. Abu Houran said at least 2,000 refugees were waiting in the town for the chance to cross the border. Most of them were staying in two schools.

More than 100,000 Syrians left in August alone, the highest monthly total in the past 18 months, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said.

More than 160,000 Syrian refugees now live in Jordan, and that number is increasing by the thousands every day. About 8,000 live in a new camp on the border, while the rest are scattered across the country.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is coming under increasing reproach as it tries to crush an uprising that has raged for nearly 18 months. Both Turkey and Egypt have criticized the regime in recent days as the violence has spiked.

Activists say nearly 5,000 people were killed in August, the highest monthly total since the crisis began in March 2011, and 23,000 have died altogether.