Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is under mounting pressure after a senior diplomat defected and Western powers drew up a 10-day ultimatum for Damascus, even as Russia ruled out sanctions.
Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, announced he was joining a small but growing list of officials who have defected to the opposition as the regime battles a nearly 16-month-old uprising.
"I call on all free and worthy people in Syria, particularly in the military, to immediately rejoin the ranks of the revolution," Fares said in a message aired on Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
The defector has since taken refuge in Qatar, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday.
Fares, who served as provincial governor around Syria and held senior security and Baath party posts, hails from a prominent Sunni tribe from eastern Syria.
The foreign ministry in Damascus said Fares had been "discharged" after having made statements to the media "in contradiction with his duty, which consists of defending his country's position". He would be "legally prosecuted".
In the latest clashes, troops shelled and then stormed Treimsa village in the central province of Hama, monitors and activists said, while 38 people were killed - 24 civilians, 11 soldiers and three rebels - across the country on Thursday.
Elsewhere, in the coastal province of Latakia, pro-regime militiamen shot dead seven people in their cars, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Lebanese security sources, meanwhile, said Syrian troops fired off dozens of shells in areas bordering northern and eastern Lebanon after firefights, adding that at least four people were injured inside Lebanese territory.
At the United Nations, Britain, France, Germany and the United States submitted a draft text that would give Assad 10 days to implement UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's ceasefire plan or face tough new sanctions.
If Security Council members approve it, the resolution would allow for non-military sanctions under Chapter VII of the UN charter if Syrian government forces keep up their offensive on cities.
Negotiations on the Western draft and a rival Russian resolution, which does not mention sanctions, started on Thursday in New York. A vote must be held before July 20, when the mandate of the UN observer mission in Syria ends.
Russia made clear from the outset that sanctions were a "red line" for veto-wielding Moscow.
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